Categorization of North Khorasan Villages in Terms of Indicators of Entrepreneurial Ecotourism Developments (Case Study: Bojnord - Golestan Road)

Abstract

Purpose- Development of rural areas is one of the challenges of Iran. This has led experts to provide strategic solutions for the development of ecotourism and entrepreneurship, addressing the economic, social and environmental challenges of rural areas. Therefore, the present study aims to categorize9 selected villages in North Khorasan Province located along Bojnord-Golestan Road in terms of indicators of entrepreneurial ecotourism. Design/methodology/approach- To explore the subject and its results, we recruited descriptive-analytical methods in the form of library research and field studies. For analyzing and collecting data from the literature, entrepreneurial ecotourism indices were classified in four groups of agricultural and livestock potentials, invaluable natural and historical heritage, cultural and social attitudes, and construction and residential infrastructure. The process of categorizing the capabilities, environmental potentials and ecotourism strengths of the 9 villages with respect to these four indicators was performed by SPSS & R software using Fuzzy Hierarchy Process Analysis (FAHP) model. Findings- Based on the ecotourism indices and the rank of villages specified by the FAHP method, two villages of Dasht and Darkash with average scores of 4.37 and 3.87 had the highest ecotourism ranks and two villages of Shirabad and Keshanak with mean scores of 2.00 and 0.94 had the lowest ranks, respectively. On the other hand, examining the status of indicators of ecotourism development suggested that cultural and social attitude index with a mean of 2.4 hd the highest rank and the index of construction and residential infrastructure with a mean of 2.94 had the lowest rank among 9 villages under study. Practical implications- Strategic planning for the development of ecotourism in North Khorasan was conducted based on the categorization of villages selected in this research. Originality/value: Categorization of villages is of paramount importance in the entrepreneurial ecotourism development as it simultaneously focuses on economic, social and natural potentials in rural areas and helps allocate limited financial resources appropriately.