Over the past decades, agritourism has spread rapidly worldwide with the growing interest of tourists in learning about rural life and the farmers' need to increase their income with various economic activities. Diversifying business activities on the farm, primarily through agritourism, increases the farm's income and helps reduce the financial problems. Yet, the economic importance and consequently the cultural and social consequences of agritourism in rural areas have not been well studied, particularly in the developing countries. This study explores agritourism's cultural and economic consequences in unspoiled rural regions of Iran that have not yet experienced tourism as a sustainable economic activity. This study adopts a qualitative approach using the grounded theory method to the Varkaneh region located on the northern side of Mount Alvand in Hamedan province, Iran. Accordingly, interviews were conducted with four groups of tourists, local residents, experts, and local authorities. The interviews were transcribed and coded (open, axial, and selective) using the MAXQDA software and studied through the content analysis. The findings indicate that economic consequences arising from agritourism include improvement of economic development, increasing financial challenges, monetary recognition of new economic patterns, and requirement of economic and administrative measures. Cultural consequences include the emergence of cultural challenges, cultural promotion tools, culture-instilling strategies, pre-implementation management measures, post-implementation management measures, and cultural capacity development. The results could help local authorities to develop sustainable tourism plans in the rural areas with traditional agricultural livelihoods in developing countries.
The expansion of urbanization is often followed by the growth of slums and formation of many improper settlements in cities. Earthquake is one of the most prominent hazards that many countries have to deal with. Several factors such as improper land use, faulty design and construction as well as inefficient urban infrastructures can increase the scope of the damage resulting from earthquakes in human settlements. The area under study, namely Kouy-e Noh Dareh, is located on the outskirts of the populous city of Mashhad, Iran. It is among the less privileged districts of the city and has poor physical conditions and numerous inefficiencies, including the old age and deterioration of residential units. In addition, it is rather unsuitable for any construction in terms of natural conditions. All these factors pave the way for the increased emergence of natural risks and occurrence of natural disasters, including earthquakes. The goal of this study was to plan a resilient neighborhood via identification of earthquake vulnerability factors. It attempted to determine the level of vulnerability of informal settlements against earthquakes by analyzing their current condition. The span of the vulnerable areas in the selected site were specified via factor analysis using six factors: convenient access to services, strengthening the physical structure, environmental compatibility, improving road networks, improving the public transport and improving social participation. It was found out that the eastern and western areas of the neighborhood are highly vulnerable against earthquake.
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