The purpose of the study is to evaluate the importance of leaders' characteristics and their economic interest in developing community capacity for tourism development. Information for this study was derived from survey questionnaires. The interviewees were community leaders in Shiraz, Iran. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicate that approximately 74% (R²=.737) of the CCB variance for tourism development was predicted by leaders' income, income from tourism, extra activities, length of residence, by the level of education and by the family involved in the tourism industry. According to the results, the largest beta coefficient is leaders' income through tourism (ß=.350). It is expected that the findings can be used by community developers for future re-evaluation of tourism planning. KEYWORDS Community leader, community capacity, tourism development, leadership INTRODUCTION The term community capacity building (CCB) is widely used among those concerned with community development or involved in social work and social service provision. CCB is a central concern of both policy makers and community residents (Marré & Weber, 2010). It is an essential condition for the development, implementation and maintenance of effective community development (Goodman et al., 1998). Many in the policy community have expressed interest in understanding why some communities are more successful in achieving positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes and how to increase communities' capacity to achieve these outcomes (Marré & Weber, 2010). The important role of community leaders in building community capacity for tourism development includes facilitating, encouraging participation and developing leaders...... middle of paper ...... this study CCB is a composite variable , composed of eight domains, namely: participation (7 items), leadership (6 items), community structure (5 items), skills and knowledge (5 items), community power (5 items), sense of community ( 7 items), resource mobilization (5 items) and support (5 items). Respondents responded to each statement based on five scales that best described the current situation in their community. The value of each response for these questionnaire items is as follows: 0= never 1= rarely 2= sometimes 3= often 4= always. The indicators for CCB were tested for their reliability using Cronbach's alpha. The results indicated the sufficiency and feasibility of the statements. It also showed satisfactory internal consistency of the manifest items measuring CCB. For this study, multiple regression analysis was conducted using the SPSS program.