Formulation a Pattern for Evaluating Performance of Spa Tourism Destination from the Expert Community and Host Community Point of View (Study Case: Sareyn City)

Spa tourism or hydrotherapy is one of the oldest and most attractive types of tourism and is still implemented today with different approaches and methods. The city of Sareyn, which is one of the most important cities providing Spa tourism services in Iran, has been considered as the subject of this research. The main goal of the current research is to develop a model for evaluating the performance of Spa tourism destination, which for the first time uses the perspective of both the expert community and the host community. The current research is mixed in nature, which used the qualitative method of expert panel in the first phase and the quantitative survey method in the second phase. The tool for collecting information in the first phase is semi-structured interviews and in the second phase, a questionnaire. In the first phase, two groups of experts and the local community of Sareyn city were used to count the indicators and components by using the Convenience and Purposive sampling method; Then, in the second phase, using stratified sampling, 31 experts expressed their opinions regarding the extracted cases. The resulting data were analyzed using SPSS26 and Smart PLS4 software. According to the findings of the research, 142 raw propositions were extracted, which were categorized into 84 key codes, 34 integrative and 5 overarching codes using the King and Harrocks coding method. In the quantitative phase, all the indicators and components were approved and generalized by selected experts. According to the results of the present research, the evaluation of the performance of the spa tourism destination can provide information regarding the existing gaps and gaps while considering the capacities and potentials of the destination. This category makes the evaluation of the activities that lead to the creation of a competitive advantage in t..