Investigating the Sustainability of Development of Rural Tourism from the Viewpoint of the Host Society and Arranging a Strategic Plan Emphasizing Sustainability (Case Study: Village of Qalat in Shiraz)

Nowadays, sustainability is considered by planners and researchers to be a dominant approach for development of rural tourism. In this respect, a variety of research studies have been done for studying this paradigm leading to introduction of various conceptual frameworks such as sustainability and strategic planning of tourism development. In this way, the present study attempts to provide a convenient basis for sustainable tourism development in the Qalat village located in the Shiraz sub-province through determining the sustainability based on the viewpoints of the host society about on tourism, and offering the appropriate strategic plan. This study is an applied research with the descriptive analytic method. The needed data has been gathered through library studies and field work. Descriptive statistical methods were carried out for data analysis. Statistical population of the research includes tourists and local native families. Analysis of local residents' perceptions shows undesirability of tourism development and approaching the threshold of saturation of sustainability of the tolerance of tourism. Yet, there exists a significant difference among the host society population's view based on their employment condition. Considering the results of this study, adopting a defensive strategy is necessary in the policy making and planning development of rural tourism in the village under study.