نوید نعیمیان

The aim of this study was analysis of rural tourism development (RTD) in Iran by exploratory factor analysis (EFA).  The research population consisted of all the experts of Organization of Tourism in Mazandaran Province (N=105), which was selected using the census method. The validity of the instrument was established by a panel of experts consisting of senior faculty members in the tourism department, and research committee advisors. The reliability of the survey instrument concluded the Cronbach alpha coefficient for all the variables with a degree scale of 0.84. Using exploratory factor analysis (EFA), five factors were discovered with components and their factor loading. The five factors were labeled (1) infrastructure factor, (2) economic factor, (3) social factor, (4) management factor and (5) cultural factor. The results obtained from the factors analysis reveal that the five following factors, infrastructure, economic, social, management and cultural explain 57.32% of the variation of RTD