Study Findings from Razi University Update Knowledge in Sustainable Development (Barriers and Facilitators of Agri-Tourism Sustainable Development in West of Mazandaran Province): Sustainability Research – Sustainable Development

2023 APR 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New study results on sustainable development have been published. According to news reporting originating from Kermanshah, Iran, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “AbstractAgritourism can promote socio-cultural values in rural areas by creating new job opportunities, helping to preserve the environment, and reversing rural-urban migration flows. However, studies have shown that this type of tourism in Iran has not yet become acceptable for development. The aim of this research was to identify the barriers to and facilitators of sustainable development of agro-tourism in the west of Mazandaran Province based on an exploratory sequential mixed (qualitative-quantitative) method.”

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Razi University: “First, 21 experts in the field of agritourism were purposefully selected from the quality departments of various organizations through semi-structured interviews. After collecting the necessary information, 120 indicators were extracted by using Conventional Content Analysis (CCA), which were then categorized in 8 socio-cultural, physical-physical, political-legal, management, intellectual infrastructure, communication-advertising, participatory, and marketing dimensions. The statistical population in the quantitative section included 69 rural residents in the western villages of Mazandaran Province, who were selected via a multi-stage method. To analyze the data, force field analysis was done by using SPSSwin20 and Pathmakerver5.5 software. The results showed that the outcomes of the deterrent forces of all the 8 factors were higher than those of the promoters, which revealed infeasibility of the sustainable development of agritourism. For each factor, the strongest facilitator and obstacle were identified and introduced. In conclusion, it should be said that it is necessary to facilitate agritourism development by strengthening the driving forces and removing obstacles to reach the equilibrium point and ultimately sustainability. Extended abstractIntroduction: Agritourism is an activity to attract tourists to an area in order to diversify agricultural activities and receive tourists on farms. Most countries of the world have considered this type of tourism as a new strategy for socio-economic development, revitalization, and reconstruction of rural areas. Agricultural tourism is a value-added product that introduces additional revenues from production lands and farm brands to customers. This is an opportunity to create a loyal consumer basis for all agricultural products. This type of tourism can provide farmers with economic incentives so as to maintain their agricultural lands and the related natural resources. Despite the advantages and benefits of agritourism, it can cause environmental degradation, illegal construction, destruction of wildlife, dispersal of plant species, spread of wastes, and loss of local culture quality in the absence of proper educational promotion among farmers, residents, and tourists. Hence, in their tourism development studies, experts and thinkers from different countries have emphasized the importance and necessity of paying attention to sustainability in the tourism sector. Sustainable tourism development is a type of development, in which the balance of the values and quality of ethics with economic principles and advantages is maintained and efforts are made to replace the balanced development with a purely economical comprehensive development. Studies have shown that agritourism, especially in the west of Mazandaran Province, has not been very prosperous and there are no specific programs and actions for its development to be considered by the relevant organizations and officials. Therefore, this issue was addressed in the present study so as to identify the facilitators of and barriers to this type of sustainable development. This research was conducted based on an exploratory sequential mixed (qualitative-quantitative) method. In the first stage, i.e., the qualitative part, the obstacles to and promoters of agricultural tourism development were identified through semi-structured interviews with 21 tourism experts from various organizations. Selection of the experts was done based on a purposeful method. The results of the qualitative part finally led to identifying 50 indicators and 70 deterrents, which were categorized in the 8 socio-cultural, physical-physical, political-legal, managerial, communication-advertising, intellectual infrastructure, participatory, and marketing factors based on their natures in order to conduct the quantitative part of the research by assessing each of the drivers and inhibitors of agritourism development in the form of a questionnaire. The questions were based on a 5-part Likert scale. In this part, a force field analysis was utilized. This method is a technique for identifying and analyzing the forces that affect a problem situation. The statistical population included a small part of rural villagers living in the west of Mazandaran Province. Due to the population dispersion and extent of distribution, a multi-stage method was applied for sampling, through which 69 general villagers were employed to complete the questionnaire. The obtained data were coded, analyzed, and described based on the force field analysis method using SPSSWIN20 and Pathmakerver5.5 software. The following results were achieved for the current situation assessed by the driving and restraining forces related to the 8 mentioned factors affecting agritourism sustainability in the studied area: The highest scores of the physical-physical driving factors and barriers were related to the indices of the region’s susceptibility to planning of and investment in agritourism and the tendencies of most people to use the private spaces of their villages in the forms of villas and private gardens, respectively. The highest scores of the political-legal driving factors and deterrents were related to the indices of providing appropriate measures to prevent the change of garden and agricultural land use to residential land use and difficulty in obtaining permits, respectively. The highest scores of management driving factors and deterrents were related to the indices of holding scientific educational workshops, personal meetings, and agricultural conferences and lack of concern for agricultural tourism among city officials, respectively. The highest scores of communication-advertising factors and barriers were related to the indices of timely information for holding agricultural exhibitions and weak advertisement for identifying agritourism capabilities in the region, respectively. The highest scores of the factors promoting and hindering the intellectual infrastructure were related to the indices of academic attention to agriculture and existence of a university unit in the province and lack of indigenous people’s education in the different surrounding regions, respectively. The highest scores of the participatory drivers and deterrents were related to the indices of villagers and indigenous peoples’ participations in the tourist guidance program and weak participation of travel agencies in agricultural tourism, respectively. Finally, the highest scores of marketing drivers and deterrents were related to the indices of tourist demand for agricultural tourism purposes and local organic products and lack of local people and tourists’ knowledge of the market and its capacities, respectively. The results of the obtained scores revealed that out of the 8 factors of promotion and deterrence in the mentioned dimensions, the scores of the deterrents were higher, indicating that the deterrents were stronger in the current situation. In general, agriculture in the current situation in western Mazandaran was associated with more obstacles and greater deterrents.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “The results demonstrated that the outcome scores of the deterrent forces were higher than those of the driving forces, and thus, the deterrent forces were stronger than the driving forces in the current situation. This indicated that sustainable development of agricultural tourism in the studied area was not possible based on the present driving factors. Therefore, according to the suggestions and solutions presented for each factor in the section of suggestions, it is necessary to strengthen the driving forces and weaken the inhibitors, the end-result of which will be agritourism sustainability. R. (2003). Risk management in rural development: A review of the Rural Development Family. The World Bank’s Rural Development Strategy, 20(3), 4-14.- Altinay, M. & Kashif, H. (2015). Sustainable tourism development: a case study of North. Journal of Annals of Tourism Research, 27(3), 37-52.- Arachi, D. J. (2017). Agri-tourism: Family Style. Cornhusker Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, 4(2), 1-25.- Baulcomb, J. S. (2003). Management of Change through Force Field Analysis. Journal of Nursing Management, 11(3), 80-275.- Bahatta, K., Itagaki, M., & Ohe, Y. (2019). Determinant Facyors of Farmer’s Willingness to Start Agritourism in Rural Nepal. Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, 4(1), 146-167.- Bagi, F. S. & Reeder, R. J. (2012), Factors affecting farmer participation in agritourism. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, 2(41), 189-199.- Ciolac, R., Adamov, T., Iancu, T., Popescu, G., Lile, R., Rujescu, C., & Marin, D. (2019). Agritourism: A sustainable Development Factor for Improving the Health of Rural Settlements (Case Study: Apuseni Mountains Area). International Journal of Business Tourism and Applied Sciences, 4(3), 1-24.- Clemens, R. (2014). Keeping Farmers on the Land: Agritourism in the European Union. Iowa Ag Review, 10(3), 8-9.- Calina, A., Calina, J., & Iancu. T. (2017). Research regarding the implementation, development, and impact of Agritourism on Pomania’s Rural areas between 1990 and 2015. Environ. Eng. Manage, 16(4), 157-168.- Flanigan, S., Blackstock, K., & Hunter, C. (2015). Generating public and private benefits through understanding what drives different types of agritourism. Journal of Rural Studies, 41: 129-141.- Gao, J., Barbieri, C., & Valdivia, C. (2013). Agricultural landscape preferences: Implications for agritourism development. Journal of Travel Research, 3(53), 366-379.- Giaccio, V., Mastronardi. L., Marino, D., Giannelli. A., & Scardera. A. (2018). Do Rural Policies Impact on Tourism Development in Italy? A Case Study of Agritourism Employment and Income Growth from Sustainable Tourism. 10(8). 29-38.- Icoz, O., Pirnar, I., & Gunlu, E. (2010). The Agri-tourism potential of the Aegean region: SWOT analysis and suggestions for improvement. Passion for Hospitality Excellence, 14(3), 25-38.- Kumar, S. (2001). Force field analysis: applications in PRA, PLA notes. London. IIED, 199(36), 17-23.- Kisi, N. A. (2019). Strategic approach to sustainable tourism development using the a’wot hybrid method: A case study of Zonguldak, Turkey. Sustainability, 11(2), 964-983.- Lucha, C., Ferreira, G., Walker, M. A., & Groover, G. E. (2014). A Geographic Analysis of Agritourism in Virginia. Virginia Cooperative Extension, (62), 1-17.- Mahmoodi, M., Chizari, M., Kalantari, K., & Eftekhari, A. R. (2014). The Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) applied to agri-tourism: A case study in coastal provinces of Iran. International Journal of Business Tourism and Applied Sciences, 2(2), 74-82.- Mohd Said, H., Chui Yee, C., & Mei Fung, O. )2012(. A SWOT analysis on agrotourism destination: A case on rural development in a small town Sekinchan Selangor, Malaysia. International Journal of Business and Management Studies, 1(2), 29-43.- Mak, A. H. N. and Chang, R. (2019). The driving and restraining forces for environmental strategy adoption in the hotel industry: A force field analysis approach. Tourism Management, 73, 48-60.- Parkar, P. (2015). Developing agritourism in Ratnagiri District of Konkan (Maharashtra): issues and challenges. Online International Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 5(2), 145-152.- Rietbergen-McCracken, J. and Narayan, D. (1998). Participation and social assessment: tools and techniques. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), World Bank Research Institute: N.W., Washington D. C., USA.- Su, B. (2011). Rural Tourism in China. Tourism Management, 32(6), 38-41.- Yang, L. I. (2012). Impacts and Challenges in Agritourism Development in Yunnan, China. Tourism Planning & Development. 9(4), 81-369.”

For more information on this research see: Barriers and Facilitators of Agri-Tourism Sustainable Development in West of Mazandaran Province. jghrafya w brnamh ryzy mhyty, 2022,33(2):37-62. The publisher for jghrafya w brnamh ryzy mhyty is University of Isfahan.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.22108/gep.2021.130270.1454.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Reza Solymannejad, PhD Student of Rural Development, Agricultural Extension and Education Department, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran. Additional authors for this research include Amirhossein Alibaygi, Laleh Salehi.

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