The Effect of Social Capital on Sustainable Development of Rural Tourism; A Case Study of Lavij Village in Iran

One of the most favorable development options in society's programs and policies is tourism development. The most important part of sustainable tourism development is promoting community participation on reliability, norms through members in it: social capital on human resource. In this regard, social capital is one of the most important variables that support community participation in many activities. The study was surveyed and analyzed the utility of social capital in a village. Targeted region is Lavij village, Mozandaran province in Iran. The paper applies the focus to the region which has been one of famous tourist spot in the country although significant delay of regional development. The research method in this study was quantitative, and verified the process of regional development based on mutual relationship between social capital by residents and rural tourism. It is found that sufficient network, reliability in the target community based on residents’ independent has constituted in this region. It was recognized that residents have strong mutual relationship which is essential element of social capital, even though it has not been influenced on active rural tourism industry. This paper can be classified into case study and its’ definition will not be applied to any cases, especially on causal relation on economic activities, thus, it will be contributed to illustrate the state of cultural community with mutual relationship which has been continued since former generation.