Strategies for the Implementation of Agrotourism using SWOT Model in the Village of Garmeh

Agrotourism or agricultural tourism is a constructive interaction between the tourist and rural people, during which people's lives, art, culture, and most importantly, their agriculture, are known to the tourist and direct income and economic development are provided. Agroturism as a subset of rural tourism is one of the most suitable areas for sustainable development in villages. The attractiveness of this type of tourism is more due to the cultural dimensions that villagers give to it. This is an issue that, unlike the world's experiences in this field, has not been taken into account in Iran. Anyhow, currently, in Iran special villages under the title "Tourism-target Village" are identified and for the presence of tourists in the village and the economic, cultural and social potential of the people living there, various plans are carried out. But what agroturism suggests is that this rural tourism model can be the basis for development in any rural village, if they are accompanied by accurate study and proper planning. Even with villages that do not have specific features, such as attractive natural sceneries or special historical site, agrotourism can be effective. The basis of agrotourism is agriculture, which is the welfare of the villagers of the country. In order to investigate the success rate of this type of tourism, the program "Agricultural Tourism Tour" was conducted in a limited time experiment in the village of Garmeh, Fariman in Khorasan Razavi province. The present paper first explains the implications, benefits and harm of agro-tourism, and further elaborates on the details of this project by analyzing-descriptive method based on field observations and questionnaires and using the SWOT model, which is a tool for combining the findings of analysis, external threats and internal capabilities, it tried to show how to operate agro-tourism in rural areas other than Tourism-target Village. At the end, the strategies for the growth and expansion of this type of tourism are expressed in terms of the results of the SWOT matrix. Research questions are: how can agroteorism, in its full meaning, be effective in villages other than the tourism-target villages? What is the solution to this problem with the least damage to the texture and cultural identity of the village of Garmeh? The results show that if agro-tourism is to lead to sustainable development of villages and to play a positive role in the lives of rural people, it needs to develop and identify specific strategies, environmental management, development of local partnership, explicit and firm rules, sustainable marketing and realistic planning. However, in the studied village, although it has got positive factors such as wildlife attractions and pristine nature, a calm and quiet natural environment, the possibility of having organic vegetable and medicine plants, and also the existence of basic infrastructure such as water and natural gas, which are essential for growth of tourism, but some weaknesses of the village can affect them. Like  distortion the rural landscape due to the uncontrolled construction by the second and third generation villagers, lack of environmental attention and also unwillingness of the villagers to enter the tourist due to cultural and religious differences. These have to be considered very seriously in order to attract tourist.  The formation of a council and also encouraging farmers to participate in this program much more are the second step that can be considered. In addition, having a financial mechanism, controlling harms and raising awareness through education can boost economic growth in the village by relying on agro-tourism.