Identifying Factors Affecting The Development of Sports Tourism in Kish Island With an Emphasis on Women's Recreational Sports

Kish Island, with its special geographical characteristics, is the only tourist area among all Iranian islands that has received particular attention in all eras. Women should be considered for the tourism industry development due to specific gender restrictions. The current research aims to "identify the factors influencing the development of sports tourism in Kish Island with an emphasis on women's recreational sports.” The research was a mixed study conducted using qualitative and quantitative studies. To identify the factors affecting the development of sports tourism, semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts, experts in the field of sport and tourism in Kish, and university professors. The result of this phase was identifying the influential factor, which became a structured questionnaire. Before distributing the questionnaire, its validity, and reliability were first determined. Then the questionnaires were completed by 80 experts working in tourism, sports, and women participating in sports-recreational games in Kish Island. In total, five factors (individual, contextual, organizational, partnership, and service management), 13 dimensions (demographic, psychological and behavioral, structural, infrastructural, policy and planning, organization, distribution and supply of services, needs assessment, sports events and coverage, sports attractions, human resources, financial resources, technology, and knowledge) and 46 components were identified. The analysis of the structural model showed that all identified factors have an impact on the development of sports tourism in Kish Island. Managerial factors were the most important, and individual factors were the least important.