Investigation of the Role of Rural Tourism Development in the Promotion of Rural Social Welfare Indexes (Case Study: East Azerbaijan Province)

Purpose- The aim of this study was to investigate the role of tourism development in the promotion of social welfare in rural East Azerbaijan province. Design/methodology/approach- The research paper is based on analytical-explanatory technique; it was carried out through a survey. The research population comprises the residents of the tourist villages. Five hundred (500) participants were selected as the sample size based on Cochran formula. Experts confirmed the face validity of the questionnaire. They performed a pilot study on 60 questionnaires within the same region. The applied questionnaire was 0.885 to 0.894 reliable based on the obtained data using Cronbach alpha. Finding- Spearman’s correlation test revealed that all research variables were positively and significantly related to tourism except sense of safety and security as well as improvement of consumption patterns. In addition, results of Mann-Whitney test showed that tourism and social welfare were more associated with tourist villages of East Azerbaijan than that of other non-tourist villages. In addition, the results of regression analysis revealed that 9 variables out of 11 obtained 89% of the variations. Accordingly, the variables of quality of life, occupation, and future expectancy have been more effective. Research limitations/implications- The recommendations in this research paper can be used in different areas of tourism management and development of villages in this region.