ژاله محمدشریفی

Purpose- The purpose of this research is to identify and analyze the obstacles of developing tourism entrepreneurship among rural women in Oraman District of Sarvabad County, considered as one of the important poles of rural tourism in the country.Design/Method/Approach- This study is applied in terms of purpose; descriptive-analytical in terms of method, and mixed in terms of data gathering as a combination of two methods namely documentary (library) and survey based on observation, interview and questionnaire. The statistical population of this research includes rural women of Oraman District, and key informative and experts in rural development. The sample size was 97 samples among rural women occupying in the field of rural tourism in Oraman District and 50 ones of key informative and experts in rural development selected by snowball sampling method.Findings- The data analysis employing inferential statistics (chi-square, one-sample t-test and correlation) showed that, legal obstacles and weakness in policy making and planning with a mean score of 4.96, weakness in tourism infrastructure, services and facilities with a mean score of 4.53 and social and cultural obstacles with a mean score of 4.48 have higher priority, respectively whereas financial obstacles have the lowest calculated mean score (3.78) among the studied indicators. Also, the results of the correlation test revealed that rural women with a better and more favorable situation in terms of personality and background, i.e. with a higher education level and occupying in the field of rural tourism and more purposeful in life, have more tendency to enter the field of rural tourism and entrepreneurship. In addition, there is a negative relationship between the desirability of personality and background variables with the effect of identified obstacles on women entrepreneurship, which means that the better the personality and background variables are, the less the effect of the identified obstacles on women's entry into the field of tourism and entrepreneurship and innovation.Practical implications- The government as well as government institutions responsible for development in the area should first improve the tourism development environment in the studied rural areas and provide the conditions for the development of rural tourism in the area and prevent the region from moving towards stagnation in tourism, and then in the next stage entering more women into the field of tourism, make an attempt to direct them towards entrepreneurial activities.Original/value- There are many obstacles in front of rural women in the direction of turning to entrepreneurial activities in the field of rural tourism. Obviating these obstacles, firstly, requires identifying them and then applicable planning pertinent to each obstacle.