Segmentation of Iran Sport Tourism Market for Foreign Tourists and a Model of Target Market

The purpose of this research was market segmentation of sport tourism in Iran for foreign tourists and modeling a target market. A questionnaire including 53 items was developed by researchers. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were examined and approved (α=0.93). It was distributed among 710 international participants from 35 countries attending Fajr international sports event (2009-2010) and it was filled out by 475 participants. The data were then analyzed using factor analysis. The results showed that Anglo, Latin European, Eastern European, Arabic, South Asian, Confucius Asian and central Asian cultures had the most interest in sport events and competitions (97.65%). Using Lisrel software (8.8), confirmatory factor analysis resulted in five sport tourists’ favorite natural sport attractions. Also, exploratory factor analysis showed that four factors including attractions related to mountain and snow (Eigen value 6.87), attractions related to shore and water sports (Eigen value 1.85), attractions related to sport competitions and events (Eigen value 1.42), and attractions related to desert and salt – desert (Eigen Value 1.19) were selected as the model of Iran sport tourism market for foreign tourists. The results revealed that four factors of exploratory analysis determined and predicted 62.95% of sport tourism target market in Iran for foreign tourists.