Gap Analysis of Current and Expected Situation of the Impact of Rural Tourism on Sustainable Livelihoods of Rural Households: A Case Study of Kalvan Village

The village, as the basis of the system and due to its position at different levels of the development process, plays an important role in the life and prosperity of any society. Agriculture as the dominant activity in the village has a decisive role in providing independence and food security.  Agriculture has many capacities, and it is very important to use these capacities in order to provide a sustainable livelihood and maintain the population of the villagers. One of these capacities is benefiting from rural tourism. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to analyze the gap between the current and expected situation of the impact of rural tourism on sustainable livelihoods of rural households.

The present research is applied of view point of its purpose and is a descriptive-survey in terms of its method. The statistical population of the study included 224 households in Kalvan village. Using Krejcie and Morgan table, 135 households were identified as the sample participated in this study. In order to achieve the purpose of the research, a questionnaire was used to collect data. The reliability of the research tool was confirmed by using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In order to analyze the data, SPSS software was used.

Examining the gap between the current and the expected situation, the results indicate that the expected situation score is significantly higher than the current situation score of the impact of tourism in each of the dimensions of sustainable rural livelihood. The results showed that there is the largest gap between the expected and current status of dimensions of institutional-structural, economic-financial and natural-environmental resources, respectively. Therefore, paying attention to these dimensions, including the introduction of Kalvan village as a tourist destination through mass media, as well as providing the necessary conditions to stabilize the livelihood of Kalvan village households and their permanence in the village will be of great help.

The key message of this study was based on the principle that the expectations of people living in Kelvan village on the sustainability of livelihood assets due to tourism have not been met to a large extent. The need to address the expectations of the target community (tourist areas) is related to the coordination among different organizations, including the tourism organization, the environmental organization, and the agricultural jahad organization of the province, as well as other related institutions. On the other hand, culturalization of the proper use of natural resources by tourists should be paid attention to by those in charge.