Model Design Sports Tourism Destinations Branding (Case Study: North area of Alborz province)

Branding is one of the strategic tools to differentiate a product in a competitive market. The aim of present study is to the Model Design Sports Tourism Destinations Branding in North area of Alborz province. Population of study consists of all domestic and foreign sport tourists in North area of Alborz province, The sample size is 384 and using Cochran formulae To obtain sample size. This study, in terms of target, applicable and based on collection data, descriptive survey. As well as, from the Spss 16 and Lisrel 8.5 software’s different methods of descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze data and test hypotheses have been used.The required data for this study with available random sampling method from Sports tourists in North area of Alborz province and is collected by questionnaire instrument. The results indicate that the tourism services quality on brand image, perceived value, tourist satisfaction, tourist loyalty and brand equity has a significant and positive impact. brand image on perceived value and brand equity has a significant and positive impact. perceived value on tourist satisfaction and brand equity has a significant and positive impact. the impact of tourist satisfaction on brand equity is positive and significant. Based on findings, except for eighth hypothesis(impact of satisfaction on tourist loyalty) and Twelfth hypothesis(impact of tourist loyalty on brand equity), other hypothesises were confirmed. It was determined that the relevant variables play an important role in sports tourism destination brand equity of North area of Alborz province. As well, except the mediating role of tourist loyalty in the between tourism services quality and brand equity, the mediating role of brand image ,perceived value and tourist satisfaction in the between tourism services quality and brand equity was confirmed. According to the analysis, the results and suggestions were presented. Keywords: Branding, Tourism, Tourism Destination, Sports Tourism, Alborz Province.

         Today, tourism is one of the most important and effective economic issues and is one of the prominent factors of communication, social and cultural in the world.  So that the number of international incoming tourists in the world was 1.235 million, the industry accounts for 7% of global exports worth $ 1.4 billion, directly or indirectly accounting for about 10 percent of the world's gross domestic product. It accounts for one in 10 tourism industries, supporting approximately 227 million jobs worldwide (UNWTO,2017:3). Today, tourism, as a dynamic economic approach with unique features, has become one of the largest and most profitable industries in the world economy and is known as a platform for social and economic change in many developing countries (Ahmadi,2018:80). Given the growing importance of tourism in today's world and the competitiveness of the tourism market around the world, tourism destinations are increasingly competing with each other to attract tourists (Ghaffari and Mam Ramezani,2019:102). Bran and branding for tourism destinations is a factor that can be used to differentiate destinations as well as achieve competitive advantage (Ghaffari et al,2018:98). One of the most important and important sectors that has the potential to become a cross-cutting sector in the tourism industry is sports, which is called sports tourism (Mirabadi et al,2019:66). Today, the tourism industry is considered a sport, including high-paying industries, and at the same time it is considered healthy and clean for the economy of any country (Pashaie et al,2019:57). In addition, given that sports tourism is a service industry and is mainly influenced by the quality of services provided, the quality of service delivery is also considered as a key concept in tourism organizations (Kozechian et al,2012:20). Therefore, quality management is one of the important issues in tourism policy, which can be addressed in the development of tourism and sports tourism and benefit from its benefits (Andam et al,2014:17). Due to the importance of the brand in tourism destination, and that Alborz province is one of the powerful destinations in the field of tourism and sports tourism, It is possible to develop all kinds of sports tourism, including mountain-water sports, skiing, etc., and according to the presence of federations and sports delegations and the facilities available in the province, can become a major hub for sports tourism. Also, measures should be taken to obtain the satisfaction of tourists who travel to this province and they will remember this province with lasting and desirable memories, and this will be achieved through the provision of high quality services, standard facilities and infrastructure. According to what has been said, this research seeks to answer the question of what is the appropriate model for branding sports tourism destinations in the northern region of Alborz province?

       This study, in terms of target, applicable and based on collection data, descriptive  correlational and is specifically based on structural equation modeling. In this research, using from the Spss 16 and Lisrel 8.5 software’s different methods of descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze data and test hypotheses have been used. The statistical population of the study is all domestic and foreign sports tourists who traveled to the northern region of Alborz as a destination for sports tourism. Since the present study is a survey type, standard questionnaires have been used to test the initial data to test the hypotheses. This questionnaire has 42 questions and the research questionnaire has been compiled in the form of a 5-point Likert scale. To validate the validity of the present questionnaire, the content validity and structure were examined. In order to investigate and validate the content narrative, the questionnaire was first given to a number of professors and researchers in marketing and tourism, and they were asked to apply their corrective comments. With the implementation of these amendments, the final version of the questionnaire was prepared and thus its content validity was confirmed. Then, in order to investigate the construct validity of the present questionnaire, the factor load related to the questionnaire questions was calculated to remove the questions whose factor load was less than 0.5 from the final analysis. Fortunately, factor load all questionnaires questions were more than 0.5, so none of the questions in the questionnaire were removed and all the questions in the final analysis were used. 

          In order to use LISREL software, it should be noted that path analysis in this software produces adaptive indicators that are acceptable in a certain range and its results can be cited. The first indicator of the Normed Chi-square Index is obtained by dividing X2/df. Values less than three are considered very desirable for this criterion. High values of 0.9 for indicators (GFI, CFI, IFI, NNFI) indicate that the model has a good fit, and if the P-Value is less than 0.05, it is considered acceptable. In addition, the RMSEA index is less than 0.1. Also, the RMR index is 0.032, which is smaller than the critical value of 0.05, so the research model has a good fit.

          As stated in the first to fifth hypotheses tourism services quality on brand image, perceived value, brand equity, satisfaction and tourist loyalty has a significant and positive impact. Therefore, it is recommended that: 1- Immediate service delivery, speeding up the provision of services as well as timely and appropriate response to tourists are other strategies that will improve the mental image of tourists.2- In order to increase the perceived value of tourists, other promotional tools such as advertising and news interviews should be of special importance to the general public and tourism destination managers and try to implement them more vigorously. In other hypotheses, it was found that brand image, perceived value and tourist satisfaction on Tourism destination brand equity has a significant and positive impact. Therefore, it is recommended: 1- To increase the credibility of the tourism destination, to create a brand, One way to increase the credibility of a tourist destination before dealing with tourists is through television advertising (branding). 2- Provide sufficient funding to provide appropriate facilities and equipment for the tourist destination, as well as coherent planning for the development of guidelines and standards required for the proper implementation of plans to create an appropriate mindset in the minds of tourists.