Identifying the strategies of rural tourism marketing in Kurdistan province

Despite the importance of rural tourism in accelerating the process of rural development and the role of marketing in its development, studies show that there is a gap in studies in this field and researchers have largely neglected to address it. Kurdistan province, as one of the richest provinces of Iran in terms of rural tourism, is not exempt from the mentioned rule and faces many challenges in the field of rural tourism marketing. Therefore, the main goal of this research is to identify the most important rural tourism marketing strategy in Kurdistan province.

Design/methodology/approach:

 The main tool for collecting field data is a researcher-made questionnaire, and the SWOT model is used to analyze the collected data.

The research findings showed that rural tourism in Kurdistan province has complex conditions in terms of internal and external factors related to rural tourism marketing. In this way, along with the many strengths and opportunities of rural tourism marketing, there are also many weaknesses and threats. Also, the findings showed that the offensive strategy (SO) is the most suitable strategy for the development of rural tourism marketing.

in accordance with the nature of the aggressive strategy, they should emphasize on the identified strengths and opportunities in order to formulate and present all plans and strategies for the development of rural tourism marketing. Therefore, in line with the development of rural tourism marketing, suggestions such as advertising to introduce the natural and human attractions of rural tourism through virtual space and mass media were presented.

Originality/value:

 Considering that no study has been done regarding the identification of rural tourism marketing strategy in our country, this research is innovative.