The influence of tourism development on economic Empowerment of rural women

Abstract

Among the production’s elements for economic growth and development such as natural resources and physical wealth, capital, technology and management, human resource is an important factor. This study aims at identifying the effects of tourism on women’s economic empowerment and entrepreneurship of rural women in rural tourism in Iran. The study was conducted on women and girls in rural areas of the province of East Azarbaijan, located in the north-west of Iran. The data has been collected by field work including questioner and interview. The data had been collected from 210 rural female those were living in two villages, which one of them is tourism destination and another had no attraction for tourists.  The research finding specifies that the Tourism destination village has the highest percentage of employment in industry and services, while in the other village; the majority of rural female labor force is concentrated in agriculture. Also, the research indicates that there are significant differences among female economic empowerment in two villages and in all characteristics related to the economic empowerment, such as Risks, Creativity, Tolerance of Uncertainty and Innovation, participants in Tourism Destination village gain higher means. Therefore, it indicates that tourism development in Tourism Destination village positively has been affected on female economic empowerment.