Participation of rural community and tourism development in Iran

Besides of many advantages of tourism, it can cause some negative impacts. Rural communities are vulnerable to these cultural, social, and environmental effects. Often in the centralized planning systems, the problems have exacerbated due to lack of local community's participation. In the countryside of Tehran, the fast growing rural tourism has resulted in both benefits and problems for host communities. The purpose of this article is to address the rural communities' attitudes towards the extent of tourism in the rural area of “Kan”, in Northwest of Tehran-Iran. The article explores community's attitudes towards a variety of issues related to tourism development. This research was built on descriptive and qualitative methods. The data were gathered by interview and the questioner. A sample population (158 people) that included rural people and managers was selected from eight villages. While many studies are arguing that the rural communities are not well prepared for an active public participation, the paper discusses that although local people have basic motivation for participation, the tourism planning structure is not well prepared for involving the rural community in the tourism development projects. The results show that although the rural community encourages tourism development in their area, they have a very low participation because they are not satisfied in way that it grows. Therefore, author believes that the reform in structure of rural tourism management is needed.