Motivating and deterring factors of sport tourism

The aim of this study was to investigate motivationg and deterring factors of tourism in sport events.
The research method was a descriptive and survey type. The sample of the study included 319 tourists of national football team matches. The data were collected using the Wimbledon questionnaire. The validity of this questionnaire was approved by 10 professors of Guilan university and 10 experts in tourism. It had a previously proven reliability of 86% using the Chronbach's Alpha. The research data were analyzed by Binomial tests (p≤0.05).
The findings indicated that socialization, entertainment and relaxation (push factors) were the most effective factors in tourists’ attendance in sport events from the tourist and fans point of view. Personal problems, financial problems and risks (deterrent factors) were the most effective factors in tourists for not attending sport events.
It is suggested that to enhance the participation of the tourist's attendance in the sport events, their motivational factors must be identified thoroughly and also there must be a good informing system about attractions of the event, and financial costs, safety problems, and health problems must be minimized.