Purpose - This study, reviewing the literature in rural tourism development, has extracted factors affecting tourism development in rural areas . Design/methodology/approach - Using five approaches in rural tourism development and using a systematic review, this study has extracted factors affecting tourism development in rural areas; Therefore, the researcher studied the existing research in this field and finally 33 articles were selected that were appropriate to the purpose of the research. Finding - Factors of tourism development in rural areas fall into four categories: economic, managerial, socio-cultural and attractions. Regarding the economic factors, investing in the region and the region's willingness to invest were more important. Regarding cultural-social factors, much attention has been paid to issues such as villagers' participation, security in the village, the spirit of hospitality and education to the villagers in tourism. Planning and attention by the government, as well as efficient local management, are key factors in management, and about attractions, natural attractions such as natural landscapes, communication attractions such as proximity to cities and having access to roads and Communication and welfare attractions such as having accommodation facilities have been very prominent. Research limitations/implications - Carrying out further studies to classify the factors affecting tourism according to the climatic and cultural diversity of the villages. Weighting of extracted factors and planning on factors that have more weight and conducting studies by providing operational solutions for tourism development are needed. Unable to read some articles because of lack of full text. Practical implications - All economic, managerial, socio-cultural factors and attractions are essential in achieving tourism development with just slight defferent in impact weight. Therefore, it is necessary to have a comprehensive view of all factors in order to policy in rural tourism. The present study also showed the need for research to provide solutions for tourism development; Therefore, considering the community-based, economic, geographical and sustainable development approaches, it is necessary to provide solutions for the development of rural tourism with a comprehensive view of all factors. Originality / value - The novelty of the article is the use of systematic review method, which has received less attention from researchers in this field. The results of this research will be used among three bodies: scientific and elite, social and popular, organizational and managerial.
