Comparative study of mental quality of life in the historical-cultural tourism target and non- target villages in Marvdasht County

Tourism is known as the number one and the largest industry in the 21st century. Over recent decades, the residents' quality of life has attracted the attention of planners. Given the importance of the concerned issue and the lack of related scientific research as well as the great importance of increased knowledge about positive and negative impacts of tourism on the quality of life in rural areas, this research aimed at conducting a comparative study of subjective quality of life in the historical-cultural tourism target and non-target villages in Marvdasht County of Iran. For this purpose, a descriptive analytical method was used. The data gathering tool was a valid researcher-made questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha coefficient ranged from 0.78 to 0.89). Based on the findings, the average score of residents' subjective quality of life in the tourism target villages in the factors including property, local livelihoods and cost, and nutrition and health were significantly higher and in the local community and physical factors were significantly lower than that of the residents of tourism non-target villages. Totally, the tourism target villages were at higher levels in terms of the economic and social dimensions of subjective quality of life and at a lower level in terms of the environmental dimension, compared with those of the tourism non-target villages. However, in general, the residents' subjective quality of life in the tourism target villages experienced a more favorable situation than the residents in the tourism non-target villages.