A Comprehensive Framework for Selecting Tourism Target Villages: A Multi-Criteria Approach in Iran

Abstract

Rural tourism development has contributed significantly to the transformation and development of rural areas and has been recognised by tourism policy-makers as a key strategy for protecting environmental values, aligning closely with the principles of sustainable tourism and development. However, there is a notable lack of coherent selection criteria for tourism villages needed for development plans at both macro and micro territorial levels. This study aims to fill this gap by identifying, classifying, and prioritising criteria for selecting tourism-target villages in Iran. A combined methodological approach was adopted, consisting of a systematic review of relevant literature to extract initial criteria and a Delphi analysis with 22 experts from diverse fields to validate and prioritise the extracted criteria. The results revealed eight criteria groups, 25 main criteria, and 90 sub-criteria. The highest priority main criteria were tourism market and demand, tourist attractions, vegetation, and climate. Furthermore, approximately 57.7% of the sub-criteria exhibited moderate to high levels of impact. The proposed framework offers a transparent, evidence-based decision-support tool for national and local policymakers involved in Iran's official Tourism Target Village programme, directly addressing the absence of codified selection criteria at the national level and offering a transferable model for other developing countries.