Rural tourism is considered as an employment factor and income generator that can be an important solution for social and economic development of rural communities as well as protecting the rural culture and environment. The first step in the development of rural tourism is to identify its barriers and challenges. This study will analyze the barriers and challenges of rural tourism, through a qualitative paradigm and a grounded theory, also analysis of variance (ANOVA) was explored in the case study, the village of Fash from Kangavar. Data collection was conducted through, in-depth interviews, direct observations and desk research. The validity of this research was confirmed by experts and specialists such as university professors, experts and managers in Iranin Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO). By using MaxQDA, as a valuable qualitative analyzing software, themes, percentage and frequency of codes were analyzed. The results of the study showed that the main barriers of rural tourism development are: economic problems, socio-cultural problems, managerial-infrastructural problems and informational and publicity problems. Analyze of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey tests revealed that, from villagers’ point of view, the managerial-infrastructural problem has a higher impact whereas experts considered the same range of impact for informational and publicity problems as a barrier for rural tourism development.
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