Abstract
In the development of rural areas whose economy is based on agriculture and animal husbandry, rural tourism activities play an essential role in diversifying rural areas’ economic activities and transforming the social structure, with its contribution to employment, income-generating effect, and bringing people from different cultures together. Similarly, cooperatives, an organizational structure where local people come together to meet their own needs in the sense of solidarity, also fulfill a vital function in the development of rural areas. In this direction, the study’s primary purpose is to determine whether cooperatives can play an active role in rural tourism development in areas where rural tourism activities occur. Therefore, the study adopted a qualitative analysis method to obtain in-depth information from the participants. In the analysis process of the data, descriptive analysis was used. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with 21 participants consisting of the Women Entrepreneurs Cooperative and local people, established in Kuyucak Village of Keçiborlu District of Isparta Province, which constitute the research sample, and a semi-structured interview form was used in the interviews. Finally, the results in line with the findings were interpreted and some suggestions for future studies were presented
Highlights
To understand the reason for the development differences of societies, researchers asked the following question
Local people and cooperative members were asked about the challenges of village life, its strengths, the basic livelihood of the region, what can be done to make village life better, what alternative work can be done to improve the livelihood of local people
On the difficulties encountered in village life, to the question: “Are there any difficulties in village life? If yes, what are your views on this matter?” While most participants expressed the lack of irrigation water as the main problem, participants with the codes K1, K2, K4, Y5 especially emphasized the migration problem that arises due to the lack of employment opportunities, which is the main problem of rural areas
Summary
To understand the reason for the development differences of societies, researchers asked the following question They sought an answer through various academic disciplines: “Why some societies still live without the most basic freedoms and rights, while some societies have shown remarkable progress in the historical process?” (Acemoglu & Robinson 2018; Sen, 2004). The answer to this question was tried to be sought with the concept of development, which questions the reasons that lead to the separation of developed and underdeveloped countries. Rural tourism, which can be expressed as one of the non-traditional rural development strategies, has similar effects with the cooperatives operating in rural areas, as it diversifies economic activities in rural areas, creates new job opportunities, and supports the increase in retail sales (Wilson et al, 2001)
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