محمدرضا رضوانی

It is truly undeniable that tourism is a system leading to epistemology and resulting in spiritual growth and excellence. The mission of the journey lies in its spiritual achievements and eco-lodges provide the potential context for mutual interconnections and gaining meaning and excellence. Therefore, lacking emphasis on spiritual potentials of eco-lodges in the accommodation sector is the main concern of this research. The present study aims to identify the factors influencing the landscape development of eco-lodges from the viewpoint of tourists to explain and analyze the realization of the spiritual landscape of eco-lodges via the perception of the eco-lodges’ landscape. The main concern of this qualitative research is seeking what a tourist sees, what he understands, how the type of accommodation would lead him from objectivity to subjectivity and ultimately, how the perception of the spiritual landscape from tourist’s view is. Answering research questions through the qualitative method with an interpretive approach and inductive strategy has been conducted by a semi-structured interview tool. Besides, the research data is gathered via two phases of coding the general concepts and classification of concepts based on the frequency. Lastly, the findings have been analyzed and interpreted through a conceptual framework. Based on research results, staying in eco-lodge causes leading resident tourist from objectivity to subjectivity and this is derived from perception of spiritual landscape. The components of the eco-lodges’ landscape adapting with three  parameters of spirituality in tourism, lead tourists to the perception of the spiritual landscape as well as the realization of the mutual understanding of nature and man in the journey and the achievement of the meaning and spirit through accommodation in eco-lodges.

Purpose: In this research, we aimed to identify the pattern of cooperative relations among the Pistachio producers in Damankuh rural district in Damghan. The social capital among the producers was also evaluated. Design/methodology/approach: In this paper, the cooperative relations and the social capital among the Pistachio producers in Mehmandoost, Zarrinabad and Hoseinabad Doolab, which are located in Damankooh in Damghan, were studied by applying social network analysis method. Thus, 66 people from Mehmandoost, 70 producers from Zarrinabad, and 74 farmers from Hosseinabad Dulab were studied. The relations which were studied included cooperation in exchanging farming tools, irrigation of Pistachio orchards, marketing and pest control. For analyzing these relations, we used network- level indicators of social network analysis including density, centralization, reciprocity, transitivity and Geodesic distance. These indicators were analyzed in the UCINET software. Finding: Results showed that the network macro-level indicators including density, centralization, reciprocity, transitivity and geodesic distance in studied villages were very low. This has caused problems for producers to cooperate with each other and threatens the stability of producers’ network and indicates cooperation among pistachio producers requires tremendous investment of both time and cost. Research limitations/implications: Problems like accessing farmers, distributing questionnaires among them and the long time needed in order to interview them were among the challenges faced in this research. Practical implications¬: In order to increase cooperation among the producers and social capital in their network it is suggested that farmers be instructed and informed by holding cooperative workshops, handling their problems in irrigation and pest control, running local cooperatives for supporting the farmers in the crop prices and paying attention to their demands. Originality/value: Given the importance of the studied area in the production of Pistachio, paying attention to cooperation and social capital among producers, can be a big step in using the fertility (potentiality) of this region to develop and improve the Pistachio production.