ecotourism clustering) has taken shape in Iran in recent years. Each of its members runs a
rural lodge, hosts tourists according to local customs, and promotes local handicrafts and
other local products with the participation of village residents. This article analyzes tourism
development activities in the village of Garmeh (a highly successful example in the
network) focusing on the facilitator’s role, impacts of the activities, and social, economic,
and environmental sustainability. Fieldwork for this article was carried out through
observation, 41 semi-structured interviews with village residents/stakeholders, and
participatory rural appraisal (for 12 groups) targeting a set of socio-cultural, economic, and
environmental sustainability indicators. Based on its results, the development of tourism in
Garmeh is found to have both sustainable and unsustainable characteristics in social,
economic, and environmental terms. As a result of private-sector facilitation, the village has
gained access to a relatively large tourism market. At the same time, local participation has
a top-down nature and tourism development activities have certain monopoly aspects.
There is overall local satisfaction with tourism development in Garmeh, although cultural
differences as well as conflicts between tourism and local development priorities and
among different village clans have also resulted in some level of dissatisfaction with the
presence of tourists and activities of the facilitator.