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Revista Universidad y Sociedad

versión On-line ISSN 2218-3620

Universidad y Sociedad vol.11 no.4 Cienfuegos oct.-dic. 2019  Epub 02-Sep-2019

 

Artículo original

The impact of tourism on developing Shiraz rural Women Entrepreneurship

El impacto del turismo en el desarrollo de la iniciativa empresarial de las mujeres rurales de Shiraz

0000-0002-2427-6509Ali Ashrafi1  *  , 0000-0001-9772-5988Farshid Hadi2 

1 University of Applied Science and Technology. Iran

2 Islamic Azad University. Bilesava. Iran, E-mail: hadi_236@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, employment has become one of the most important issues of the world and maybe one of the few things that all human, governments are involved. Tourism is an industry that has a lot of occasions with a combination of services and creativity. Women’s participation in the process of economic development has been increased in many ways leading to tourism development and empowerment in society. However, many obstacles are existed for empowering women in their entrepreneurial achievement. The purpose of this research is the investigation of abilities, barriers, and strategies for developing entrepreneurship among rural women in tow villages of Shiraz. The statistical population of this study is 3500 women over 18 years old. Then the questionnaires are filled for 165 women according to the Morgan table. The aim of this research is the investigation of abilities, barriers, and strategies for developing entrepreneurship among rural women. Then the impact of tourism on empowerment and increase their income in rural tourism is studied. The results depicted that, there is a relationship between the development of tourism and employment of women in tourism sectors in the economic and cultural abilities.

Key words: Empowerment; Rural tourism; Entrepreneurship; Barriers; T-test

RESUMEN

Hoy en día, el empleo se ha convertido en uno de los temas más importantes del mundo y quizás en una de las pocas cosas en que todos los gobiernos humanos están involucrados. El turismo es una industria que tiene muchas ocasiones con una combinación de servicios y creatividad. La participación de las mujeres en el proceso de desarrollo económico se ha incrementado de muchas maneras, lo que lleva al desarrollo del turismo y al empoderamiento de la sociedad. Sin embargo, existen muchos obstáculos para empoderar a las mujeres en su logro empresarial. El propósito de esta investigación es la investigación de habilidades, barreras y estrategias para desarrollar el espíritu empresarial entre las mujeres rurales en las aldeas de Shiraz. La población estadística de este estudio es de 3500 mujeres mayores de 18 años. Luego los cuestionarios se llenan para 165 mujeres de acuerdo con la tabla de Morgan. El objetivo de esta investigación es la investigación de habilidades, barreras y estrategias para desarrollar el espíritu empresarial entre las mujeres rurales. Luego se estudia el impacto del turismo en el empoderamiento y el aumento de sus ingresos en el turismo rural. Los resultados mostraron que existe una relación entre el desarrollo del turismo y el empleo de las mujeres en los sectores turísticos en las capacidades económicas y culturales.

Palabras-clave: Empoderamiento; Turismo rural; Emprendimiento; Barreras; T-test

Introduction

Entrepreneurship is an important aspect that creates self-development. Tourism has an important influence on payment balance, employment and its high added value, positive effects on infrastructure and superstructure and therefore these factors resulting to be an important part in developing countries (Roe & Urguhart, 2001). Tourism has been considered as a major source of economic growth. Many projects have proceeded by governments to improve tourism with economic growth (Nowak, Petit & Sahli, 2010). Particularly, after 1990, the importance and form of tourism have mostly altered by the effect of globalization. The true information about the place to go and advertising has been obtained. Mostly, the tourism sector contains many subcomponents.

These components are activated by employment, exporting, input and output of exchange, the transportation component and similar components (Binns & Nel, 2002). Khanka (1999), stated that ‘tourism entrepreneur’ is a person or a group of persons producing and managing tourism products. Creating employment, foreign exchange, regional balance, helping peace Global, helping to invest in cultural heritage, helping to improve the environment and wildlife habitats, development of rural areas with tourist attractions has been one of the benefits of this industry. Women's participation is not only a step towards the goals of tourism development but also empowers them. In this study, the activities of rural women of Shiraz are agriculture, animal husbandry, handicrafts, and services.

The most important issue we are facing in this study is that, given the tourism capabilities available in the area of study, the rural women's capabilities be taken to their self-sufficiency. Using participatory methods can be done with local community participation. Community case study, that is, rural women have potential capabilities in different fields. The role of men and women in Iran is slightly different in sectors that they are engaged in. The aim of this paper is to determine the characteristics of their businesses in obstacles & challenges. The research method was descriptive-analytical and various methods for collecting data including observation, interview, and color worksheet have been used.

Development

Today, rural tourism is one of the most popular forms of tourism. Attractions, facilities, and development capabilities Tourism in rural areas of our country are very diverse and wide, but so far these attractions are very well known and introduced. Mahdavian (2010), investigated the assessment of tourism capacity in the Nair province Ardebil. The results of this research indicate that Nair has a suitable bed for tourism improvement. Khajeh Shahkouee, et al. (2012), have investigated the Role of Tourism in Empowerment of Rural Women in the province of Ziarat village, Gorgan. For women, household businesses are a good starting point for running a personal business. Because starting the household business has found a lot of fans compared to other types of businesses.

In the global economy, women entrepreneurs are considered as vibrant forces and agents of economic growth and development. Gray &Hervey, in this regard, rural tourism can create a variety of economic activities and jobs for women. Irene (2016), showed that women entrepreneurs in South Africa were significantly motivated than men by the need to keep learning and the need for more money to survive. Sidhu and Kaur (2006) studied that technical knowledge, management skills, innovation, and work experience affected the entrepreneurship empowerment. Researchers have found that the need for success and self-satisfaction are the important factors for women entrepreneurs in the USA who want to begin a new business. Maghsoudi & Rahimi (2008), have conducted research on rural participatory evaluation method in four villages of Evan district of Qazvin province, in which women participated actively in the process of this research. In this research, after recognizing the local community and studying their problems and needs, the solutions presented by the local community have been proposed to improve their quality of life.

This research is based on the analytical-descriptive method. The data has been gathered by library studies and rural participatory evaluation in the province of two villages (Ghalat, Ardakan) Shiraz. Entrepreneurship and capable women are identified after completion of 165 questionnaires. The statistical population of the study is 3500 women over 18 years old. Using Morgan's table, 35 individuals were selected as the model for investigation of the barriers and strategies for women entrepreneurs in Ghalat and Ardakan villages of Shiraz and the questionnaires completed. The required information was obtained through Rural Participatory Evaluation Studies (Libraries, Fields, Questionnaire Completion, Color Workshop, Audiovisual Equipment, and Methodology). The village of Qalat is located in Shiraz, 36 kilometers northwest of Shiraz, at an altitude of 2065 meters above sea level. Entrepreneurship with the aim of providing new products and aimed at improving the quality of traditional products is progressed. Ardakan is the center of the city of Sepidan in the province of Fars in southern Iran, with an area of about 375 hectares, located 70 kilometers northwest of Shiraz. The city, which is located 2200-2300 meters above sea level in the valleys between the southern Zagros Mountains, is due to the high annual precipitation, it is a good place in the winter due to winter sports and in the summer due to waterfalls and rivers.

In this research, 165 questionnaires completed and field studies of the women with the collaborative ability with the participation of 35 women. The average age of rural women was 35 years and 26.6% of respondents were between 32-45 years old. The findings also show that slightly more than 9.9% of the respondent were between 27-32 years old (Table 1).

Table 1 Classified of age as reported by respondents. 

Age (year) Number Percent of respondents (%)
Less than 22 21 12.7
23-27 33 20
27-32 15 9.09
32-45 44 26.6
More than 46 52 31.5

Information corresponding education is shown in Table 2. 23% of respondents were illiterate and more than 36% of them had a high school diploma. Among the women who responded to question, slightly more than 9% had a degree higher than a diploma.

Table 2 Classified of education as reported by respondents. 

Education Number Percent of respondents (%)
Illiterate 38 23.03
Less than diploma 52 45.47
Diploma 60 36.3
More than diploma 15 9.09

In order to obtain information as well as, oral participation, blue, orange and green sheets had been contributed among women to write down their capabilities, barriers to entrepreneurship and empowerment on the blue, orange and green paper, respectively. Then, capacities, barriers, and strategies through this method were discussed.

According to the obtained results, women in this region are skillful in production of agriculture products, honey, olive oil, handicrafts. In addition, they are able to serve tourism well. The main obstacles to growth and women entrepreneurship are lack of interaction with successful entrepreneurs, gender discrimination, low priority to get a loan from bankers, lack of the group participation and demanded establishment rural women organization (Fig.1 ).

Fig. 1 Position of Shiraz city. 

Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test and Evaluation of hypothesis

To investigate that the development of tourism has made the Economic and cultural empowerment of women in the village of Shiraz or not we consider the hypothesis that the development of tourism has made the cultural empowerment of women. Furthermore, in order to investigate the entrepreneurial capacities of the studied villages, economic Dimensions One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test for normality assumption (ks) was used. Results of the analysis showed that variables used in the first questionnaire by women in the various sectors of tourism answered follow a normal distribution. Since the significance level of variables below 0.05, showing the variable distribution is normal.

T-test for evaluation of the first hypothesis which is the economic empowerment of women resulting from tourism development is done and the results of the t-test are shown in table 3, 4, 5, 6.

Table 3 Results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test 

Dimension Variables Significance level Result
Economic empowerment of women Enhance family welfare 0.002 Rejected H0
Reduced growth population in women that work inside or outside the house 0.010 Rejected H0
Household income production by local industries and hanicrafts 0.003 Rejected H0
Increasing housing conditions 0.001 -

Table 4 - T-test for first hypothesis 

T-test varibles
Significance level df t Confidence interval of 95% Standard deviation Average
Maximum Minimum
0.00 163 40.12 4.14 3.71 0.794 3.94
0.00 163 39.35 4.09 3.79 0.799 4.11
0.00 163 37.94 4.36 3.81 0.813 3.97
0.00 163 42.02 4.12 3.69 0.732 4.06

Table 5 - Results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test 

Dimension Variables Significance level Result
Cultural empowerment of women Improving the health quality 0/003 Rejected H0
Enhance educational quality 0/002 Rejected H0
An opportunity for women to work outdoors - Rejected H0
Increasing social and responsibility of women 0/003 Rejected H0
Changing lifestyle resulting from cultural development 0/00 Rejected H0

Table 6 T-test for second hypothesis 

T-test varibles
Significance level df t Confidence interval of 95% Standard deviation Average
Maximum Minimum
0.00 163 43.126 4.02 3.65 0.728 3.91
0.00 163 29.351 4.08 3.72 0.793 4.01
0.00 163 28.668 4.16 3.51 0.802 3.77
0.00 163 41.337 4.25 3.61 0.781 3.86
0.00 163 41.990 3.77 3.59 0.750 3.81

The principal barriers based on the rural participatory evaluation in two villages are included lack of participation, lack of exhibition and tourist stores in spite of having many tourists, insufficient awareness of tourists' needs, absent of proper road access in the main road, Inappropriate investment by the government and the private sector in the field of tourism. The most important problem in their opinion was the lack of group participation and demanded the establishment of rural women's organizations in these villages. In their view, the formation of a rural women's cooperative can be very effective in increasing the production and information of the products needed, creating employment and the sense of cooperation and empathy.

Finally, the strategies for the improvement of empowerment of women in two villages were assessed, that include the following things: Increasing awareness among women in rural areas, arrange training programs for women that empower them to find out the business process, developing the quality of infrastructure facilities and enhancing road safety in villages, More business loans for women's businesses with low interest and long payment should be given for their business, enhance handicrafts design and creating more and better facilities (suitable residential and restaurants) in the mainstream to attract more tourists and Promotion of self-employment culture and encouraging men to prevent women's economic activity and consider women's need for work and activities to increase income and family welfare.

Conclusiones

As the results of this study showed that, empowerment of women by developing complementary jobs can create household jobs and local and handicrafts products such as weaving, kilim weaving, could increase household incomes. Women in rural regions have not used a lot of potential for entrepreneurship due to their inappropriate conditions. Therefore, one of the main parts in the economic and cultural empowerment of women, tourism development and utilization of tourism is in urban areas. For this purpose, one of the aims of this study was to study the impact of tourism development on the economic and cultural empowerment of women. Based on the rural participatory evaluation in the studied area in relation to tourism elements (cultural heritage, museum, hotels, travel agencies, the place of handicrafts and products) and after fixing first and second hypotheses of normality Kolmogorov test, t-test was studied in according to the Asmyrnoof variables. The results of T-test showed that the development of cultural tourism resulting in the empowerment of women and financial independence, increasing family welfare and enhance the family economy. In conclusion, there is a significant correlation between the developments of tourism in the rural cities of Iran and the economic empowerment of women.

Bibliographic references

Binns, T., & Nel, E. (2002). Tourism as a local development strategy in South Africa. The Geographical Journal, 168(3), 235-247. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3451338Links ]

Irene, B. (2016). Women entrepreneurship in South Africa: Understanding the role of competencies in business success. The Southern African. Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management. Retrieved from https://sajesbm.co.za/index.php/sajesbm/article/view/121/111Links ]

Khanka, S. S. (1999). Entrepreneurial Development. New Delhi: S. Chand Publishing. [ Links ]

Maghsoudi, M., & Rahim, A. (2008). Participatory rural appraisal method: a case study of four villages in ovan region in Ghazvin province. Roosta va Towse' e Summer, 11(2), 91-118. Retrieved from https://www.sid.ir/En/Journal/ViewPaper.aspx?ID=142421 Links ]

Mahdavian, F. (2010). Geography Conference. Tehran: Tehran University. [ Links ]

Nowak, J. J., Petit, S., & Sahli, M. (2010). Tourism and Globalization: The International Division of Tourism Production. Journal of Travel Research, 49(2), 228-245. Retrieved from https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/75083/1/MPRA_paper_75083.pdfLinks ]

Roe, D., & Urguhart, K. P. (2001). Pro-Poor Tourism: Harnessing the World’s Largest Industry for the World’s Poor”. World Summit on Sustainable Development: Johannesburg. Retrieved from https://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/11007IIED.pdfLinks ]

Sidhu, K., & Kaur, S. (2006). Development of entrepreneurship among rural women. Journal of Social Sciences, 13(2), 147-149. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09718923.2006.11892543Links ]

Received: May 08, 2019; Accepted: July 28, 2019

*Autor para correspondencia. E-mail: ali.ashrafi.sarvak11@gmail.com

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