A meta-analysis of studies on sports tourism development in Iran with an approach to identify the factors affecting it

The purpose of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis of studies of factors affecting the development of sports tourism in Iran. The statistical population of the study consisted of all scientific research articles focusing on sports tourism in sport management publications. A total of 59 articles on sports tourism were published until September 2019. After reviewing the articles, according to the preliminary meta-analysis processes, 27 articles were selected as those that met the entry criteria for the meta-analysis calculations. These articles were analyzed using version 2 of CMA. The results of the systematic review of the articles showed that the research in this field was mainly descriptive-analytical. The meta-analysis findings indicated that six variables are involved in the development of sports tourism. These variables respectively are tourism and natural attractions, advertising and marketing factors, infrastructure and facilities factors, factors related to events, social-cultural factors, and management factors. In addition to these variables, the variable of quality of transport and services also had the necessary condition for entering into the meta-analysis calculations but the results showed that it did not have a significant impact on the development of sports tourism. In a general conclusion, it seems that all of the above variables are like interrelated factors and each of these factors can be the basis for or complement to another. This indicates that one factor alone cannot contribute to the development of sports tourism and that special attention should be paid to all the above.