The present study entitled ‘The Role of Empowering Village Managers in Tourism Industry: A Case Study of Bojnord Villages’ aimed at investigating and analyzing the village managers and councils’ performance. The main question to be scrutinized was “Does empowering village managers play an effective role in developing tourism industry?” To answer the question, the following hypothesis was formulated: “Empowering village managers is essential in developing tourism industry.” The instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was determined through Delphi and whose reliability through Chronbach’s Alpha. The population of the study was composed of rural people of Bojnord chosen from 223 villages with an entire population of 158,665 people. The sampling method was multi-cluster sampling. These villages were chosen from among those that enjoyed tourist attractions and empowering village managers which could potentially gain benefits from the results of the present study. Thus the two axes of tourism including 20 villages with a population of 21,516 people were chosen as the sample population from which the subjects of the study were randomly selected. To determine the sample population, the researcher applied Morgan scale where 52 rural managers were sampled out to take the questionnaires. Having been collected and processed, the data were analyzed through SPSS and Spearman Ranking Correlations. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between empowering village managers and tourism industry development. Based on the results, the most important problems of the managers in tourism industry development were their lack of knowledge, financial resource deficiency, and the absence of new technology. To solve the problems requires the manager cooperation and government’s support in all the grounds of development.
Abdollahian, Hamid, Shariati, Shima & Shoushtrizadeh, Elham. (2006). Measuring
rural management performance in Iran, with regard to the factors effective in management process in the villages of Iran, Humanities teachers quarterly, special edition: Managment
Alqanami, M.R. (1993). Rural poverty cricis: can participation eliminate it? (Trans.:
Oktaee, Naser). Village and development, no.5
Badri, Sayd Ali; Qadiri Massoum, Mojtaba; Farhadi, Samet & Eskandari, Hafiz.
(2010). A comparative study of rural managements of Iran and China with the
approach of governing. Village and development quarterly, year 14, no. 3
Bontron, Jean-Claude and Nadine Lasnier. (1997). Tourism: A Potential Source
of Rural Employment, in Rural Employment. An International Perspective, Ray D. Bollman and John M. Bryden eds. New York: CAB International: 427-446
Bourke, Lisa and A. E. Luloff. (1995). Leaders Perspectives on Rural Tourism:
Case studies in Pennsylvania. Journal of the Community Development Society, Vol.26, No 2: 224-239
Brass, Jane L. (1996). Community Tourism Assessment Handbook. Corvallis,
Oregon: Western Rural Development Center, Oregon State University. Web Site: http://extension.usu.edu/wrdc/ctah
Burr, Steven W. (1995). The Rural Action Class’s Perceptions of Tourism and
its Potential for Economic Development: Case studies from Four Rural Pennsylvania Counties. General Technical Report, Report No. INT-323: 82-89
Ebrahimzadeh, Eesa; Kazemirad, Shamsollah & eskandari Sani, Mohammad. (2011).
Strategic programming of tourism development, focusing on religious tourism (A case study; Qom city). Human geography studies, no. 76.
Emadi, Mohammad Hssein & Darban Astaneh, Alireza. (2004). Determining the
outline and indices of permanent rural development in rural and wandering tribes regions of Iran, the board of scientific researches of Iran
Este’laji, Alireza. (2012). Studying the model of rural management in Iran, focusing
on local management and rural managements’ participation. Research and
science Quarterly of the geography of Iran, 10th year, no. 32
Henning, Steven A. (1996). Developing a Rural Tourism Marketing Strategy
Based on Visitor Profiles. Louisiana Agriculture, Vol.39, No 1: 8-9
Interior Ministry. (2003). Special edition of councils, the elite national conference on
the second period of Islamic councils, vice presidency of council and social affairs
Javan, jafar & Saqaee, Mehdi. (2004). The role of rural tourism in regional
development, focusing on rural management. The Quarterly of geography
and regional development, no. 2. P. 109-124
Jome’pour, Mahmood. (1999). The process of permanent development and the
role of participation in management and maximum productivity of natural resources. Articles of the conference on natural resources, participation and development. Jungles and pasture organization of Iran, Tehran
Jurowski, Claudia (1996). Tourism Means More than Money to the Host
Community. Parks and Recreations, Vol.31, No 9: 110-118
Kay, Daram. (1992). Coopration development: perspective of rural people’s experiences,
translated by research center and studying the rural issues of reconstruction organization, village and development, no. 4
Khabbazzadeh, Nasim. (2011). Studying rural management in Iran, focusing on the
performance of Islamic Councils, The monthly of rural managements, year 7,
no.35
Khoushegir, Mohammad, (2003). Studying the factors effective in the
performance of rural Islamic Councils of Savojbolaq city, M.A Thesis, Tehran university
Lee, John. (1999). Tourism and development in developing countries. ( translated by
Abdoreza Rohnodin Eftekhari et al). Tehran: commerce press co
Mahdavi, Masoud & Najafi Kani, Ali Akbar. (2005). Village Managements, A different
experience in the management of villages in Iran, random sample of village managements in western Azarbayjan province. The quarterly of geographical research, year 37. No. 1
Malekan, Ahmad & Karimi, Seyd Hadi. (2011). Studying Rural management in Iran ,
focusing on the role councils and village managements. Monthly research magazine on spreading village managements, no. 35
Mirzaeee, Rahmat. ( 2009). The effect of developing rural tourism on job
opportunities in the region of Ormanat, Kermanshah. Journal of village and development, year 12, no. 4
Mohammadzadeh Larijani, Fatima & Qorbani, Sahar. (2011). Studying the structural
challenges of rural management in Iran. The national conference on rural development
Motiee Langroudi, Seyd Hassan. (2003). Rural planning focusing on Iran.
Mashhad: Jahad Daneshgahi press, first edition
Motiee Langroudi, Seyd Hassan & Nosrati, Mahereh. (2011). Studying the possibility
of tourism development in rural areas from the perpective of tourists (Gorganroud district at Talesh city). Journal of geography and environmental programming, year 22. No. 1
Motiee Langroudi, Seyd Hassan. (2003). Rural management and reconstruction, an
experience on Europe and North America. Journal of science and research quarterly of geography and regional development, Ferdowsi university of Mashhad
Nemati, MOrteza & Badri, Seyd Ali. (2007). Assessing the practical role of the new
system of rural management, a comparative analysis of active rural managements in small and big villages, a case study: Golestan province. Journal of geographical researches, no. 59
Research vice presidency and jahad daneshgahi of Tehran Branch, (1999). Studying
and analyzing the laws and regulations related to village managements and offering legal suggestions for the sake of eliminating the vague point, challenges and its legal deficiencies. Mashhad: Jahad Daneshgahi press
Rezvani, Mohammadreza. (2004). An introduction to rural development
programming in Iran. Tehran: SAMT Press
Qaderi Massoum, Mojtaba & Riahi, Vahid. (2004). Studying the fields and challenges
of rural management in Iran. Journal of geographical research
Saeedi, Abbas & et al. (1991). Analyzing the methods of rural categorization. The first
report, vice presidency of rural reconstruction at housing organization of the
Islamic republic
Shamaee, Ali & Mousavand, Jafar. (2011). Categorizing the cities of Isfahan province
regarding the tourism infrastructure, using the models of TOPSIS and AHP,city and regional studies and researches, year 3, no. 10
Taleb, Mehdi. (1997). Rural management in Iran, Tehran university
Taqavi, Ramin. (2006). Tourism in Kohkiloyeh and its role in development. A
thesis for MA in sociology in Tehran University.
The Municipality organization of north khorassan province, (2013)
Vadiee, Kazem. (1969). An introduction to knowing villages in Iran. Tehran:
Dehkhoda press
Vice Presidency of rural affairs. (1999). The performance of Iran’s rural affairs vice
Presidency. Tehran: The organization of Municipalities and village managements of Iran
Weaver, Glenn (1986). Tourism Development: A Potential for Economic
Growth, in New Dimensions in Rural Policy: Building Upon our Heritage, Subcommittee on Agriculture and Transportation of the Joint Economic Committee. US. Congress: 440-444
Woods, Mike D. (1992). The Tourism/Rural Economic Development Link.
Blueprints for Economic Development Cooperative Extension Service, Oklahama State University, Vol.2, No 2: 2.
Copyright: © 2013 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
