Assessing the Resilience of Tourism Businesses against the Drought of Lake Urmia (Case Study: Coastal Villages of Shabestar City)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant professor of the Department of Geography and Rural Planning, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate professor of the Department of Geography and Rural Planning, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

10.30490/rvt.2023.361506.1515

Abstract

Introduction
Rural business is one of the types of businesses that nowadays, due to the reconstruction of functional patterns of many rural areas and also the design of new tourism businesses in rural areas is one of the most dynamic aspects of entrepreneurship. Activities that are formed in tourism destinations with goals such as improving livelihoods and economic well-being sound to be the best ways to deal with these risks of economic shocks and imbalances to improve their resilience. Resilience is the capacity of society to withstand risks and abnormal conditions and return to normal conditions. Considering that tourism is an important and dominant economic sector in some countries and some destinations are dependent on this sector for growth and survival, relying on this sector has put a lot of pressure on tourism managers and planners in order to protect the business and the tourism community against crises and disasters and has led to the presentation of strategic plans to deal with its possible consequences. Therefore, in an important and growing economic activity such as tourism, it is necessary to understand and recognize the dimensions of the accident and crisis and to examine strategies to stop or limit its consequences. In this regard, business resilience and resilience planning are a comprehensive approach. To realize the development of tourist communities and reduce the possibility of instability caused by the occurrence of disruptive conditions in the normal process of these businesses, the most common perspective of resilience in tourism is on the marketing of the tourism industry and the number of incoming tourists to the destination due to the rapid change of variables caused by unexpected or predictable events and its impact on the economy and tourism businesses. In fact, the resilience of tourism may pay attention to the changes in social, environmental and economic variables that make up  tourism in an integrated way, but the ultimate goal of paying attention to it should be to create the resilience of businesses related to these variables against external fragile events.
Materials and Methods
The current research is applied in terms of its nature and descriptive-analytical in terms of survey-based method. The data collection tool for each item was through a questionnaire. The required variables of this research were selected using the study of reliable scientific sources and field study from the study area. In this research, the questions related to the variables of the questionnaire are set using a 5-option Likert scale from very high to very low. The unit of analysis in this research is the business owners related to the tourism sector in the rural areas around Urmia Lake in Shabestar city. In order to determine the reliability of the questionnaire, a number of 30 questionnaires were distributed in the region and the reliability coefficient of resilience was estimated at 0.87, which indicates that the mentioned questionnaire has adequate reliability. Also, based on Cochran's sampling formula, the sample size was 350 people from business owners related to the tourism sector. The data needed for the research was also collected through a simple random sampling method.
Results and Discussion
The descriptive findings of the research, based on 350 questionnaires distributed among the sample size, indicate that 319 were men and 31 were women. The highest frequency of respondents was 156 people in the category of 41-50 years, which accounted for 45% of the sample size. In terms of level of education, among the four levels of education, elementary and illiterate, under-diploma, post-diploma, bachelor and above, the highest frequency of respondents with 194 people, equal to 55%, was in the diploma level. One sample t-test was used to investigate the resilience of villages in four dimensions. The general results of the one-sided t-test for the resilience of the villages show an average of 1.68. Considering that the average observed resilience of the villages is less than 3, which corresponds to the average level of the Likert spectrum, so it can be said that the overall resilience situation in the studied villages is evaluated at a low level of resilience. According to the results of the one-sided t-test, the average of social capital dimension was 2.11, economic 1.22, human capital 2.16, and management institution 1.23. The significance level of all the indicators is lower than the test error level of 5% and the average of all dimensions are not at the optimal level and this issue is effective in reducing the resilience of the studied villages.
 
 
Conclusions
The results of the research based on the one-sided t-test indicate that the general situation of resilience is not very favorable. The general results of the one-sided t-test for the resilience status of the studied villages show an average of 1.68. Considering that the average observed resilience of the villages is less than 3, which corresponds to the average level of the Likert scale, it can be said that the overall resilience situation in the studied villages is evaluated at a very low level of resilience. Dimensions of resilience from the villagers' point of view have different averages, so that the highest average is related to the institutional and human capital (2.16) and the lowest average is related to the economic dimension (1.22). The stratification of the 7 studied villages based on Mirka's decision-making technique shows that based on the score (Q) Ali Biglo, Qara Tapeh and Kafi al-Mulk villages are at the medium resilience level, Sheikh Wali and Koushak villages are at the low resilience level and Haft Cheshme and Maraghosh Qala villages are at a very low level of resilience.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

  1. Aligholizadeh Firozjaei, N. (2022). Assessing the resilience of coastal tourism businesses against the Covid virus outbreak crisis 19 (Case study: Coastal settlements of Babolsar township), Journal of Human Geography Research, 4(54), 1211-1226. [In Persian]
  2. Attaee, H. Bostany, A.R., Soltani Moghads, R. & Salahi Esfahani, G. (2022). Assessing the vulnerability of rural settlements to drought using the Cooperas model (Case study: Darab township), Journal of Physical Social Planning, 9(2), 73-86. [In Persian]
  3. Ayala, J-C. & Manzano, G., (2014), The resilience of the entrepreneur. Influence on the success of the business. A longitudinal analysis, Journal of Economic Psychology, 42, 126-135.
  4. Biggs, D. (2011). Understanding resilience in a vulnerable industry: The case of reef tourism in Australia. Ecology and Society, 16(1), 3-12.
  5. Biggs, D., Hall, C.M. & Stoeckl, N. (2012). The resilience of formal and informal tourismenterprises to disasters: Reef tourism in Phuket Thailand. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 20(5), 645–665.
  6. Blake, A. & Sinclair, M.T. (2003). Tourism crisis management - US response to September 11. Annals of Tourism Research, 30 (4), 813–832.
  7. Dahles, H. & Susilowati, T.P. (2015), Business resilience in times of growth and crisis, Annals of Tourism Research, 51, 34-50.
  8. Darban Astane, A. & Ghasemi, F. (2022). Assessing the resilience of rural farmers to drought and identifying livelihood strategies (Case study: Central part of Shazand county), Rural and Development Quarterly, 25(2), 1-22. [In Persian]
  9. Davidson, D.J. (2010), The applicability of the concept of resilience to social systems: Some sources of optimism and nagging doubts, Society and Natural Resources, 23(12), 1135–1149.
  10. Diffenbaugh, N.S., Swain, D.L. & Touma, D. (2015). Anthropogenic warming has increased drought risk in California. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(13), 3931-3936.
  11. Ebrahimi, M. Zargham Borojieni, H. & Sokhandan, Elnaz. (2019). The role of knowledge management in crisis management process in tourism destinations. Journal of Tourism Planning and Development, 7(27), 102-122. [In Persian]
  12. Escalona, J., Flexas, J. & Medrano, H. (2002). Drought effects on water flow, photosynthesis and growth of potted grapevines. Vitis, 41(2), 57-62.
  13. Firouznia, Q., Nosrat, N. & Ghaderi, R. (2021). Evaluation of resilience of villages in Barough rural district, Miandoab, in case of blocked roads due to snowfall, Journal of Physical Social Planning, 8(2), 73-89. [In Persian]
  14. Folke, C., Carpenter, S., Elmqvist, T., Gunderson, L., Holling, C.S. & Walker, B. (2002). Resilience and sustainable development: Building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations. AMBIO: A journal of the human environment, 31(5), 437-440.
  15. Ghanbari, Y. & Aryanfar, V. (2017). Evaluating the effect of drought on the economic status and livelihood of rural households in collective operation units: A case study of Fasa county of Iran, Village and Development, 20(2), 69-91. [In Persian]
  16. Ghiyasvand, A. & Abdolshah, F. (2016). The concept and evaluation of Iran's economic resilience, Economic Research Review, 15(59), 161-187. [In Persian]
  17. Gu, H. & Wall, G. (2006). Sars in China: Tourism impacts and market rejuvenation. Tourism Analysis, 11(6), 367–379.
  18. Guo, Y., Zhang, J., Zhang, Y. & Zheng, Ch. (2018). Examining the relationship between social capital and community residents' perceived resilience in tourism destinations. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 26(4), 1-14.
  19. Hall, C.M. & Williams, A.M. (2008). Tourism and innovation. London: Routledge.
  20. Hassan Gana, A., Fullen, M.A. & Oloke, D. (2019). Problems of drought and its management in Yobe State, Nigeria, Weather and Climate Extremes, 23, 1-9.
  21. Heydari Sarban, V. & Bakhtar, S. (2015). Investigating ways to deal with drought in rural areas from the perspective of the agricultural organization (case study: Isfahan province), Journal of Geography and Environmental Research, 4(15), 19-34. [In Persian]
  22. Huang, J.H. & Min, J.C.H. (2002). Earthquake devastation and recovery in tourism: The Taiwan case. Tourism Management, 23(2), 145–154.
  23. Khatibi, S. A., Golkarian, A., Mosaedi, A. & Sojasi Qeidari, H. 2019. Assessment of resilience to drought of rural communities in Iran. Journal of Social Service Research, 4(45), 151-165.
  24. Majnoni Totakhana, A. Heydari Sarban, V. & Mufarah Bonab, M. (2017). Investigating the effects of drought in Lake Urmia on changes in the resilience of rural settlements, Journal of Regional Research and Planning, 6(20), 64-89. [In Persian]
  25. McGehee, N.G., Lee, S., O’Bannon, T.L. & Perdue, R.R. (2009). Tourism-related social capital and its relationship with other forms of capital: An exploratory study. Journal of Travel Research, 48(2), 486–500.
  26. Mokhtari, D. (2010). Evaluating the place of geomorphology in the assessment of natural disasters in Iran, Journal of Geography and Land, 3(1), 53-67. [In Persian]
  27. Moayedfar, S. & Taghvaei, M. (2015). An Assessment of relationship between tourism crisis management spatial organization and security in tourism (Case study: Yazd city). Journal of Tourism Planning and Development, 4(13), 120-146. [In Persian]
  28. Orchiston, C. (2013). Tourism business preparedness, resilience and disaster planning in a region of high seismic risk: The case of the Southern Alps, New Zealand. Current Issues in Tourism, 16(5), 477–494.
  29. Pourtaheri, M. Roknodin Eftekhari, A.R. & Kazemi, N. (2016). The level and degree of vulnerability caused by drought in rural areas (from the perspective of farmers), Human Geography Research Journal, 48(1), 19-31. [In Persian]
  30. Ritchai, B.W. (2017). Crisis and disaster management in tourism. Translated by Seyyed Ali Badri, Narges Vezin and Mehdi Ramzanzadeh Lesboui, Tehran: Noor Alam Publications.
  31. Sadeghlou, T. Mahmoudi, H. & Jafari, F. (2018). Analyzing the resilience of tourism businesses in rural areas, the case of Mashhad's sightseeing area. Quarterly Journal of Space Economics and Rural Development, 6(1), 1-22. [In Persian]
  32. Shafiei Sabit, N., Doosti, B. & Ghorbani, M. (2016). Assessing vulnerability of rural settlements to drought phenomenon using Kupros multi-crieteria decision-making model (Case study: Delfan county), Physical Geography Quarterly, 9(31), 119-134. [In Persian]
  33. Steiner, A. & Cleary, J. (2014). What are the features of resilient business? Exploring the perception of rural entrepreneurs. Journal of Rural and Community Development, 9(3), 1-20.
  34. Tanago, I.G., Urguijo, J.U., Blauhut, V., Villarroya, F. & Stefano, L.D. (2016). Learning from experience: A systematic review of assessments of vulnerability. Natural Hazards, 80(2), 951-973. DOI: 1007/s11069-015-2006-1.
  35. Varmazyari, H. & Imani, B. (2017). Analyzing resilience of rural businesses in Malekan city. Journal of Entrepreneurship Development, 10(1), 181-200. [In Persian]
  36. Yavari Gohar, F. & Mansouri Moayed, F. (2018). Crisis management in the tourism industry. Tourism Management Studies Quarterly, 12(40), 21-40. [In Persian]
  37. Zaheri, M. Aghayari Hir, M. & Zakeri Miab, K. (2015). Vulnerability Assessment of rural areas regarding earthquake risk (Case study: Central distr ictof Marand county), Journal of Research and Rural Planning, 4(1), 97-111. [In Persian]

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics