THE ROLE OF SOCIAL CAPITAL OF TOURIST HOST COMMUNITIES IN LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

The inefficiency of top-down planning and a purely economic and quantitative view of development lead researchers and institutions to emphasise the role of social dimensions in local development. Especially, social capital plays a central position among the local development dimensions. The present study tackles both social capital dimensions -the characteristics of an individual or an attribute of the society. Given the importance of the neighbourhood as the smallest cell in spatial organisation and urban planning, this research covers a tourist host neighbourhood in the context of a developing country. With the help of 100 random samples from Darakeh, Tehran municipality in Iran, the study investigates how social capital of tourist host communities contributes to local development and in terms of neighbourhood components. The results confirm the importance of links and trust, and the mental and objective dimension of participation. Further, trust in the neighbourhood council and municipality has the greatest role in residents' desire to participate in local decisions, also contributing to the success of municipality in providing tourism and local services.