Objective: The objective of the present study was to investigate the factors affecting the development of rural tourism in the Mahan district of Kerman city. Method: This study is applied-developmental in terms of its objective and descriptive-analytical in terms of its method: The statistical population of the study included all villagers of 6 tourist-friendly villages in the Mahan district of Kerman city, numbering (7656), of which 366 were selected as the sample size based on the stratified random sampling method and according to the Cochran formula. In order to collect data, a questionnaire on factors affecting the development of rural tourism was used. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were measured as 0.93 and 0.90, respectively. To identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, both the external factor evaluation (EFE) and internal factor evaluation (IFE) matrices were used, and to identify factors affecting the development of rural tourism, the SWOT matrix was used. Also, to determine the priority of the research criteria and sub-criteria, the analytical hierarchy process model known as AHP was used. Findings: The results of the SWOT matrix show that there is a significant relationship between the factors affecting the development of rural tourism in the Mahan district of Kerman city. Conclusion: Tourism is one of the most important activities of contemporary man, which, along with creating remarkable changes in the landscape, transforms the political, economic, cultural and lifestyle of humans.