مهری جهانسوزی

Purpose- Development of the tourism industry in a proper way, followed by the promotion of tourism entrepreneurship, calls for adequate knowledge and understanding of the barriers and problems in this matter. In this regard, the present study tried to evaluate the barriers to the development of tourism entrepreneurship in tourism target villages of Chaldoran County. Design/methodology/approach- The current study is descriptive-analytical in terms of nature and method, and applied according to its objectives. The statistical population in this study includes people living in villages targeted for tourism. To study this population, 212 questionnaires were arranged based on the modified Cochran's formula. Information and data were collected in 2018 using library and field studies (observation and completion of a questionnaire). After collecting information through questionnaires using simple random sampling, the data obtained after coding were analyzed by SPSS and Amos softwares applying descriptive and analytical statistical approaches. Findings- The results showed that all the studied factors were effective in the failure of tourism entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, social barriers with a correlation coefficient of 1, physical and economic barriers with a coefficient of 0.91 had the greatest impact on barriers to tourism entrepreneurship in tourism target villages. Practical implications- Rural tourism entrepreneurship, regarding the natural and cultural capacities in the villages, can play an important role in revitalizing the villages, creating employment and income for the people, protecting the natural, historical and cultural heritage, and finally providing integrated and sustainable rural development, because rural tourism is one of the types of tourism whose sustainable form in various economic, social and environmental dimensions, paves the way for achieving sustainable development of local communities.

Purpose- sustainable rural housing can be considered as an important index in rural development. Hence, preparing plans in the area of sustainable rural housing requires different aspects and components of sustainable housing to be identified and analyzed. Designing and employing sustainable housing indices is especially important in rural planning as an essential instrument to express physical, socioeconomic, and environmental aspects of sustainable housing. The present study aims at identifying and explaining appropriate indices and criteria to evaluate housing sustainability and to operate the indices in the country villages. This is done by emphasizing Ghouchan Atigh rural district and presenting a modern methodological framework through a survey among the scientific elites by Delphi method. The present study is seeking to find out which indices are more valid and valuable for evaluating housing sustainability in Ghouchan Atigh rural district; and how is the process of designing appropriate indices and criteria to evaluate sustainable housing in rural areas. Design/methodology/approach- the methodology of the present study is based on descriptive-analytic methods as well as quantitative-qualitative mixed method. Findings- the findings of the study indicate that among 128 designed indices, 70 key indices were appropriate to rural housing structure especially in Ghouchan Atigh rural district. They include 28 indices to evaluate physical-infrastructural sustainability, 23 indices to evaluate social sustainability, 15 indices to evaluate economic sustainability, and 4 indices to evaluate environmental sustainability. The results also indicate that regarding analysis of the selected indices, physical-infrastructural indices are mostly valid in sustainability analysis with the score of 8.02. Environmental indices with the score of 7.89, social indices with the score of 7.65, and economic indices with the score of 7.49 are at the next ranks.