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<p>Sustainable tourism development in fragile desert and rural environments remains a complex governance and management challenge, particularly in regions where institutional coordination is weak and local stakeholder capacities are underutilized. In southern Fars Province, despite growing tourism potential, limited integration between governance structures, community participation, and tourism product development has constrained progress toward sustainability. Addressing this gap requires a systematic understanding of how these dimensions interact within a coherent structural framework. This study aims to explain the role of local actors, tourism governance, and tourism products and services in promoting sustainable tourism within rural settlements of southern Fars Province. The research adopts a descriptive–survey design and is applied in purpose. The statistical population consisted of 150 local stakeholders, experts, and practitioners in the tourism sector of southern Fars. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire comprising four main constructs and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS software. To ensure measurement rigor, Composite Reliability (CR), Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and the Fornell–Larcker criterion were employed, confirming satisfactory reliability as well as convergent and discriminant validity. The findings reveal that active participation of local actors has a positive and significant effect on tourism governance, tourism products and services, and sustainable tourism outcomes. Tourism governance significantly enhances the quality and diversity of tourism products and services; however, it does not exert a direct significant effect on sustainability. Instead, tourism products and services play a mediating role and have a strong positive impact on sustainable tourism development. The Goodness-of-Fit (GoF) index indicates acceptable overall model fit and substantial predictive relevance. Based on these results, strengthening multi-level governance mechanisms, enhancing the decision-making capacity of local stakeholders, and diversifying culturally grounded tourism products are essential pathways toward achieving sustainable tourism in desert regions. The novelty and practical contribution of this research lie in the integrated examination of governance, local agency, and tourism products within a unified structural model, empirically testing their causal interrelationships in the underexplored context of arid and semi-arid rural environments. The study provides a transferable analytical framework for sustainable tourism development in similar desert regions worldwide.</p>

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Promoting Sustainable Tourism in Rural Settlements of Southern Fars Province with Emphasis on Governance, Local Stakeholders, and Tourism Products and Services

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月28日

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  • Ali Shamsoddini,
  • Kamran Jafarpour Ghalehteimouri,
  • Morteza Javdan

摘要

Sustainable tourism development in fragile desert and rural environments remains a complex governance and management challenge, particularly in regions where institutional coordination is weak and local stakeholder capacities are underutilized. In southern Fars Province, despite growing tourism potential, limited integration between governance structures, community participation, and tourism product development has constrained progress toward sustainability. Addressing this gap requires a systematic understanding of how these dimensions interact within a coherent structural framework. This study aims to explain the role of local actors, tourism governance, and tourism products and services in promoting sustainable tourism within rural settlements of southern Fars Province. The research adopts a descriptive–survey design and is applied in purpose. The statistical population consisted of 150 local stakeholders, experts, and practitioners in the tourism sector of southern Fars. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire comprising four main constructs and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS software. To ensure measurement rigor, Composite Reliability (CR), Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and the Fornell–Larcker criterion were employed, confirming satisfactory reliability as well as convergent and discriminant validity. The findings reveal that active participation of local actors has a positive and significant effect on tourism governance, tourism products and services, and sustainable tourism outcomes. Tourism governance significantly enhances the quality and diversity of tourism products and services; however, it does not exert a direct significant effect on sustainability. Instead, tourism products and services play a mediating role and have a strong positive impact on sustainable tourism development. The Goodness-of-Fit (GoF) index indicates acceptable overall model fit and substantial predictive relevance. Based on these results, strengthening multi-level governance mechanisms, enhancing the decision-making capacity of local stakeholders, and diversifying culturally grounded tourism products are essential pathways toward achieving sustainable tourism in desert regions. The novelty and practical contribution of this research lie in the integrated examination of governance, local agency, and tourism products within a unified structural model, empirically testing their causal interrelationships in the underexplored context of arid and semi-arid rural environments. The study provides a transferable analytical framework for sustainable tourism development in similar desert regions worldwide.