The consequences of tourism development in rural areas of Heiran regarding land use changes in the 1997s and 2007s

The land use change as second homes is one of the consequences of rural tourism development which has been in our country since long time ago and the most expansion of this phenomenon is in mountainous and coastal areas. In the domain of this study, due to beautiful mountainous landscapes, forests, and green pastures, the number of second homes and land use change is increasing so that the texture density of second homes like plain is abundant. In addition to this, in the domain of this study, the land use change from agriculture to residential, commercial, and recreational has happened in the 1997s and 2007s. Villa building, rural road, widening the main road of Ardabil to Astara, increased number of service centers such as: teahouse honey shop, roadside restaurants, grocery, health center, elementary school, emergency service, traffic bases, main road lightening, increasing the number of tourists from this area is one of the obvious samples of economical and social variations of consequences of the land use changes. Analytical - descriptive method is used in this thesis in order to study the consequences of tourism development regarding the land use changes in the rural areas of Heiran - astara in the 1997s and 2007s. The data gathering method is a compound of field and documentary study. The present research attempts to study the second homes during one decade and the expansion process, the consequences of tourism development and land use changes in the rural areas of Heiran. According to the findings. The most land use changes and increasing the number of second homes are related to the early years of the decade and Heiran has got the most numbers. Geographical factors in Astara to Ardabil road are the most important reasons for the people to build second homes so that more than 80% of residents come from Ardabil, Astara, and Tabriz. Finally there are suggestions for the best use of tourism development and land use changes in order to improve economical bases.