Analyzing the Effect of Tourists’ Vandalistic Activities in Rural Areas on Local Community’s Tourist Reception and Tolerance: A Case Study of Neyshabour’s Tourist Villages

Apart from its positive effects, rural areas’ tourism development would exert some tangible and intangible negative influences on the host community. For instance, some tourists destroy and damage the rural areas’ infrastructure and tourist attractions in different ways such as engraving remembrance words, breaking down trees, etc., which, in the long term, may negatively affect the relationship between the host community and the visitors of the tourism destination villages, leading to a decrease in community’s tourism reception and social tolerance. Therefore, this study sought to analyze the relationship between tourists’ vandalistic activities in rural areas and the local community’s tourism reception and tolerance in the five tourism villages of Neyshabour. To this end, a descriptive-analytical methodology was applied, using library resources and surveys to collect the required data. The study’s population comprised 92 heads of families living in the studied villages. The results suggested that the most frequent vandalized activity conducted by tourists was polluting the village and its surroundings with wastes and the use of alcoholic drinks and drugs. Scores of the locals’ tourism reception and tolerance were, except one case (tolerance of social anomalies induced by tourist visits), reported above average. Moreover, the results of correlation analysis indicated a significant reverse correlation between tourism reception and the locals’ conflict with tourists. Also, the analysis of the effect of tourists’ vandalistic activities on the local community’s tourism reception and social tolerance showed that the significance level was less than 0.05, indicating that the regression model used for the analysis was significant for both dependent variables.