Modeling the Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of Nature
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MODELING THE SOCIOECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF NATURE-BASED TOURISM TO THE HOST COMMUNITIES AND THEIR SUPPORT FOR TOURISM PERCEPTIONS OF LOCAL POPULATION: MAZANDARAN, NORTH OF IRAN Roozbeh Mirzaei A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of University of Giessen for the degree of Dr. rer.nat. September 2013 Justus Liebig University Giessen MODELING THE SOCIOECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF NATURE-BASED TOURISM TO THE HOST COMMUNITIES AND THEIR SUPPORT FOR TOURISM PERCEPTIONS OF LOCAL POPULATION: MAZANDARAN, NORTH OF IRAN By: Roozbeh Mirzaei A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of University of Giessen for the degree of Dr. rer.nat. FB07- Mathematik Und Informatik, Physik, Geographie 1. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Andreas Dittmann 2. Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Eckart Ehlers September 2013 Justus Liebig University Giessen II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all those who provided me the possibility to complete this thesis. Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Dr. Andreas Dittmann for the continuous support of my Ph.D study and research, for his patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge. Without his guidance and persistent help, this dissertation would not have been possible. I also would like to thank my advisor Prof. Dr. Eckart Ehlers for his useful comments, remarks, and constructive criticism of my thesis. I wish to acknowledge my thesis committee members for their guidance, time, inputs, and patient during the final stage of my thesis. Furthermore, I wish to thank Prof. Dr. Taghi Rahnemai and Prof. Dr. Mahmoud Ziaee for their advice, remarks, and support. In addition, I would like to express my appreciation to the all colleagues and administrators from the Department of Geography at the Justus Liebig University Giessen. Finally, I would like to acknowledge Mrs. Lisett Diehl from Department of Geography; section cartography for providing maps of my thesis. III I dedicate this thesis to my wife and my children who stand by me all through with patience and tolerance IV Abbreviations CA= Community Attachment CC= Community Concern DANEA: Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art DOE: Department of Environment ECRC=Economic Benefits Remain in the Community FRWO: Forest, Range & Watershed Organization ICHTO: Iran Cultural Heritage & Tourism Organization ITTO: Iran Travel & Tourism Organization IUCN: International Union for the Conservation of Nature. NEI: Negative Environmental Impacts NSEI: Negative Socioeconomic Impacts PBO: The plan and budget organization of Iran PEI: Positive Environmental Impacts PSEI: Positive Socioeconomic Impacts SCI: Statistics Centre of Iran ST= Support for Tourism Development TIES: The International Ecotourism Society UNEP: United Nations Environment Programme UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization UT: Utilization of Tourism Resources WCED: World Commission on Environment and Development WTO: World Tourism Organization WTTC: World Travel & Tourism Council V Abstract Mazandaran province became one of the first tourism-oriented provinces in Iran in the last decades. In these years, Mazandaran has continued to attract people’s attention to its tourism opportunities and especially towards its nature-based tourism potentials. Given the importance of understanding local community attitudes, this thesis provide a model to assess local population’s perceptions of socioeconomic and environmental impacts of nature-based tourism and its relationship with support for tourism development in Mazandaran. In order to examine local community perceptions of nature-based tourism impacts in Mazandaran and their support for tourism development, local residents who have lived at least for one consecutive year in Babolsar or Kelardasht were sampled. The thesis findings suggest that residents appreciated tourism for increasing job opportunities, development of recreational facilities and spaces, creating a positive feeling about area among tourists, and enhancing social relationships between tourists and residents. However, unbridled, unplanned, and unmanaged development of tourism in Mazandaran in past years has led to widespread environmental degradation and the destruction of tourism resources and has intensified increasing the cost of living of local people. Because of the uncontrolled construction, there have been major changes in coastal areas. In other words, public and private villas, shops, restaurants, airport, and hotels cover around 95% of coastal areas in touristic regions that are not accessible to tourists and seashore has become the “exclusive courtyard” for tourist villas. The occupation of beaches, water pollution and impose severe restrictions for tourists in coastal zones, has led to the “counter-beach” phenomenon in Mazandaran. The change in the flow of coastal tourists affects the neighboring regions particularly Caspian plain, forests and mountainous areas and resulted in major environmental and social degradations. Environmental degradation, deforestation, and destruction of coastal areas are increasing and the nature-based tourism resources of mazandaran are declining. Therefore, implications and recommendations derived from the results and based on proposed model are suggested. VI Table of contents CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Statement of purpose and objectives ....................................................................................... 3 1.2 Research questions .................................................................................................................. 5 1.3 Scope of the study ................................................................................................................... 7 1.4 Significance of the study ......................................................................................................... 7 1.5 Outline of the study ................................................................................................................. 9 1.6 Definitions of terms ................................................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................ 10 2.1 Tourism and its significance ............................................................................................... 10 2.1.1 Tourism history ............................................................................................................ 10 2.1.2 Tourism significance .................................................................................................. 11 2.2 The nature of development .................................................................................................... 13 2.3 Evolution of development paradigms: the path to sustainability .......................................... 14 2.3.1 Modernization ............................................................................................................ 14 2.3.1.1 Modernization and tourism ................................................................................... 16 2.3.2 Dependency ............................................................................................................... 18 2.3.2.1 Dependency and tourism ....................................................................................... 19 2.3.3 Neo-liberalism ............................................................................................................ 22 2.3.3.1 Neo-liberalism and tourism .................................................................................. 22 2.3.4 Alternative and Sustainable Development ................................................................. 23 2.3.4.1 Sustainable Tourism .............................................................................................. 24 2.4 Natural areas .......................................................................................................................... 26 VII 2.4.1 Nature-based tourism ................................................................................................... 28 2.4.2 Nature-based tourism typology ................................................................................... 29 2.5 Ecotourism ............................................................................................................................ 30 2.6 Nature-based tourism impacts ............................................................................................... 33 2.6.1 Environmental impacts of nature-based tourism ......................................................... 35 2.6.2 Socioeconomic impacts of nature-based tourism ..................................................... 38 2.7 Factors affecting perceived impacts of NBT ......................................................................... 43 2.7.1 Socio-demographic characteristics .............................................................................. 43 2.7.2 Community concern ..................................................................................................... 45 2.7.3 Community attachment ...............................................................................................