نرگس وزین

Purpose- To develop agritourism, based on the supply and demand framework, it is essential to understand the preferences of tourists as well as the tendency and capabilities of the local community to participate in the development of agritourism. The study aims to examine tourists’ preferences, gardeners’ preferences and capabilities for agritourism activities, and to compare tourists’ preferences and gardeners’ preferences and capabilities regarding agritourism activities.Design/methodology/approach- The research method is a descriptive-analytical type carried out by a survey method. The study population consisted of 109 apple gardeners the 15 sample villages of Semirom County who were selected using a targeted sampling method, and 252 tourists who visited the sample villages. The data were collected using two researcher-designed questionnaires. To analyze the data, SPSS software along with inferential statistical methods, including One-sample t-test and Friedman were used.Findings- The findings indicated that tourists' demand for agritourism activities is high and they are interested in all types of agritourism activities. Gardeners are willing to provide agritourism activities, but they have low capability to offer them to tourists. Also, the findings indicated no match between the demand and supply for agritourism activities; Tourists’ main preferences were for Agri-recreation, Agri-experience and Agri-accommodation, and food services, while the tendency and capability of gardeners were more about agri-entertainment and Agri-education.Practical implications- The findings will be useful for tourism planners to develop optimal strategies for developing agritourism with a better understanding of the behaviors and preferences of tourists as well as the willingness and ability of gardeners.Original/value- Using the integrated supply and demand framework to analyze the gap between tourists' preferences and gardeners' capabilities for agritourism activities is the innovations of the research.

Tourist destinations are selected by tourists based on various factors. One of the most important factors is tourist destination security. The study aims to investigate the role of security in the development of rural tourism. The methodology is descriptive-analytical. The statistical population includes 194 tourists from eight villages of Torqabeh and Shandiz County, which selected through the Cochran formula. A survey containing Likert- type scales were used for data collection. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured through Cronbach Alpha, which is acceptable. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and Pearson Correlation test, One Sample T-test and Linear Regression, and VIKOR model. The results indicate that the security variable has a strong direct relationship with the tourism development variable (Coefficient = 0.713). In other words, security positively influences rural tourism development. In addition, the results of VIKOR model reveals that there is a different level of security for tourists in 8 tourist villages of the region; Jaghargh, Kang, and Abardeh villages are in good condition, but Noqondar, Anbaran, and Zoshk villages are at lower level in terms of tourism security and Zoshk village is at the lowest level in terms of tourism security that for the development of tourism in these villages should be considered by the authorities.