Agritourism as a Tool for Regeneration of Sustainable Rural Communities: The Case of Golzar Village near Tehran, Iran

Regeneration of villages using tourism and rural tourism is a major issue in rural settlements. The type of appropriate tourism depends on what potential of the village should be the target of tourism. Due to the prevalence of agriculture in rural communities as a type of sustainable local economy, agritourism can act as an effective tool for attracting visitors and regenerating villages with prosperous agricultural economy which are potential tourist attractions. This type of tourism refers to the agricultural activities and operations that invite tourists to the farms of the village to receive services such as Agricultural accommodation, agricultural food services, primary agritourism, direct sale of products, relaxation and agriculture, sports and agriculture, agricultural ceremonies, agricultural health care, and cultural tourism. Therefore, agritourism targets a wide variety of invaluable landscapes, natural wildlife zones, cultural values, desirable conditions for hunting, fishing, skiing, and hiking, and a good market with a large number of consumers. With the aim of promoting this type of tourism in Golzar village, which is a center of flower and plant production located to the south of Tehran, the present study first offers a conceptual model of agritourism in general and then applies this model to the case of Golzar Village. The economy of this village is based on the production and export of decorative plants and its residential district is surrounded by numerous greenhouses. The unpleasant visual features of the greenhouses, not using the decorative potential of plants in residential areas, lack of a supply market for the produced plants, and the fact that this village is not widely known in the country as a center of flower production, are among the main issues of the village. Given these issues, the present paper seeks to propose a conceptual framework of agritourism in sustainable rural communities in general and a design framework for Golzar based on agritourism in particular, thereby highlighting the development process in a planned manner. To this end, the literature was reviewed through content analysis in order to elaborate on the components of the conceptual framework of agritourism for regeneration of rural areas. Next, the general aims of the study were considered which include improvement of the local community, environmental sustainability, improvement of the economy of the region and neighborhood, and enhancement of place identity. Finally, after preparing a preliminary perspective and evaluating the conditions of the area with SWOT method, the macro- and micro-scale aims of agritourism-based regeneration in Golzar were suggested. Based on the unifying idea of designing a tourist path to realize agritourism with the aim of rural regeneration, three design scenarios were devised for the village: 1) a tourist circular path, 2) a linear tourist path, and 3) a combined tourist path. Using Goal Achievement Matrix, the third scenario turned out to be the best scenario. In the end, after developing the design framework which consisted of different parts of the conceptual framework as well as the best-practice scenario, a set of actions were proposed for the village in the field of farming, agritourism, flower and plant research, rural settlement, decorative plant exhibitions, leisure and recreation, tourist water canal, protection of the high-voltage electric cable, and the transportation path to the village. The paper concludes with suggestions for applying the findings of this study to rural areas with similar potential.