Tourism development if accompanied with proper planning and principles plays a major role in empowering local areas particularly in coastal villages by creating new job opportunities, reducing unemployment and bringing economic growth. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the strengths and opportunities and also the weaknesses and threats for the development of tourism and to provide guidelines on the development of coastal villages in the north of Iran. This study is an applied type with a descriptive-analytical method. The sample of the present research consists of coastal villages. After identifying the parameters, a questionnaire was designed in which 200 villagers, experts and officials of the tourism sector in the population were selected using Cochran formula. Finally, using descriptive analysis and factor analysis in SPSS, data were analyzed. The results of the factor analysis suggests that various investigated factors as weaknesses or threats were classified into four categories. 72.41 percent of total variance and the rest of 27.59 % were related to factors beyond the scope of this study. It is worth noting that the main challenges facing the development of coastal villages were infrastructure, environmental, health, socio-cultural and economical challenges. Also, different investigated factors as strengths were grouped into four categories which explain 70.36 percent of total variance and the rest of 29.64 percent are related to the factors beyond the scope of this study. Moreover, opportunities were environmental, economical, socio-cultural and infrastructure ones.

Ap .J. (1992). Residents Perceptions on Tourism Impacts. Annals of Tourism Research.19 (4).665-690.

Ateljevic.j.(2007).Small Tourism firms and Management Practice in New Zealand the Center Stage Macro Region. Tourism Management.28 (1)307-316.

Aykac A. (2005). Contemporary Patterns of Labor Transformation Evidence from Turkish Tourism Industry. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of New York.

Dwyer.l.Edwards .D. Mistilis n. Roan .c. and Scott .n.(2009). Destination and Enterprise Management for a Tourism Future. Tourism Management .30(1)63-74.

Doswell, R. (1997). Tourism: Effective Management Makes Different. Butterworth and Heinemann.

Jurowski. C. Uysal. M and Williams.Rd.(1997). A Theatrical Analysis of host Community Resident Reactions to Tourism. Journal of Travel Research.36 (2)3-11.

Gunn, C. & Var, T. (2002). Tourism Planning: Concepts, Basics, Cases. Rutledge, New York.

Hall, C, & Page, S. (2001). The Geography of Tourism and Recreation. Rutledge.

Haltmam .j. and hall .CM.(2012). Tourism Place Making Governance of Locality in Sweden. Annals of Tourism Research.39 (2)547-570.

Jepson, M.E. (2002). The Impact of Tourism on a Natural Resource community:               Cultural resistance in Corte Florida. University of Florida.

Ling-Giang. Z. and Qiao.l.(2003). on Lake Tourism Development Models and Tendency in the 21th Century. Economic Geography. Tourism Management School of Management. Department Zhejiang University of Hangzhou. China.

Maf achievement funds .(2009). Sustainable Tourism for Rural Development County. Republic of Serbia.

Molera.l.and Pilar .A.(2007). Profiling Segments in Rural Area of South-Eastern Spain. Tourism Management.28.757-767.

Norris.M. (2007) A Study a Social Economic and Environmental Impacts. Paper Presented at: the European Network for Hosing Research (Enhr) International Conference on Sustainable Urban Areas. 25-28 June.

Nrayan, D. (2002). Impacts of Tourism on Economic and Demographic Development  in a Rural Spanish pueblo. University of Central Oklahoma

Nunkoo. R.and  Ramkisson H.(2012).power.Trust.Social Exchange  and Community Support. Annals of Tourism Research. 39(2)997-1023.

Rayan, Ch. (1995). Recreational Tourism, a Social  Science Perspective. Rutledge, Now York.

Richards .G (2000), Tourism and the World of Culture and Heritage. Tourism Research, V.25 99-108.

Rossana, G. (2007). Tourism and the City , Opportunity for Regeneration.

Swarbrook.j. (1998). Sustainable Tourism Management. Newyork .Cahi.

Tuohino.A.(2002).In Search of the Sprite of the Lakes as an Opportunity for Tourism Marketing .Lake Tourism Project. Savanlinna for Regional Development and Research.1-12.

Wiliam.a, M. and Hall. CM.(2009). Tourism and Migration Now Relationship Between Production and Conception Tourism Geographies. (1)1: 5-27.