Identification and Prioritization of Factors Affecting the Development of Sports Tourism in Iran

The objective of this research is to identify the priorities of effective factors in the development of sport tourism in Iran. Regarding the research objective, the present research is applied. In terms of methodology, it is mixed method (qualitative-quantitative) which the qualitative method was followed by quantitative method. In qualitative phase, the statistical population included 15 sports management professors and experts. Also, in the quantitative phase, 84 individuals (employees, sport managers, sports tourism experts, university professors) were selected as sample. Due to the limited number of the statistical population, the total population sampling was used. In the qualitative phase, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with sports management professors and experts. After coding, the 14 items structured questionnaire was prepared. The content validity was confirmed and then the questionnaire was distributed among the sample. The reliability of the questionnaire was 0.89 through Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In this study, the NVivo10 software was used to analyze the qualitative data obtained from the interview. In the quantitative phase, one-sample t-test was used to analyze the statistical data. Also, Friedman test was used to rank the components, dimensions and indicators. The quantitative analysis was done using SPSS software at a significance level of P≤0.05. The results of the study showed that there was a significant difference between the factors of creating internet sites and the introducing local tourism attractions, advertising on television and satellite channels, establishing and introducing tourist tours, and developing the infrastructure in the development of sport tourism. The factor of creating internet sites and introducing local tourist attractions with an average of 5.99 was ranked as the first. Finally, introducing tourist tours with an average of 3.05 was ranked as the last.