The Community-based Tourism Model of Mountain Villages with the Grounded Theory Approach (Case Study: Kojur District, Nowshahr County)

Purpose- The purpose of the current research is to present a community-based tourism model in the mountain villages of Nowshahr County in Mazandaran province.Methodology- This research was conducted in two stages. In the qualitative part, a semi-structured and in-depth interview was conducted with ۲۰ tourism activists, handicrafts and university experts with a theoretical and targeted method, and the analysis of the interviews was conducted with a Grounded Theory method. The classical grounded theory was done with the help of MAXQDA software. In the quantitative part Lawshe index have been used and in order to test the paradigm model, the final questionnaire was distributed among ۳۸۴ people of Kojur mountain villages in a cluster and available method. In the last stage, by using Smart PLS software the structural model was examined. Findings- The community-based tourism model of mountain villages obtained in this research includes six components. Causal factors include two "Mental" and "Behavioral" components, contextual factors include three "Group", "Family" and "Individual" components, intervening factors include four "Infrastructural" and "Political-Law" components, "Economic" and "Socio-Cultural", strategies including four "Developmental", "Marketing and Product", "Financial" and "Educational" components and finally the consequences including three "Social-Cultural", "Environmental" and "Economic" components. Also, the main phenomenon in this model was "passion for action".Practical implications- Considering the problems of tourism in the mountainous villages of Kojur region, it is possible to develop community-based tourism by reducing the obstacles identified and strengthening the contexts by adopting development strategies, marketing and product, finance and education and created positive consequences.Original/value- By knowing and gaining insight into the formation process of community-based tourism in Kojur mountain villages and its effective factors and consequences, it is possible to develop better and more effective this type of tourism in the region.