Determining Important Factors in the Quality of Sport Tourism Packages in Iran

Sport tourism has a great development in the world and it is inevitable to develop sport tourism to help tourism industry growth in Iran. Researches have shown that marketing is one of the important ways to develop sport tourism. Sport tourism packages as one of the main outcomes of marketing can both increase the sport tourist's visit duration and quality and reduce the travel costs. This research aimed to determine important factors in the quality of sport tourism packages and its priorities in Iran using marketing mix elements approach. For this purpose, 54 faculty members in tourism and sport management fields and managers and experts of tourism marketing and advertisement were selected as the statistical sample. They completed a researcher-made questionnaire (validity and reliability were approved) with 52 questions. Results showed that "night leisure and recreation", "using modern technology in organizing events", "being rich in arts, music and architecture", "having ancient places", "costs", "culture and traditions", "being rich in natural resources", "considering the needs and desires of tourists", "having a good culture of behaving towards tourists", "availability of information in English language", "getting touristy information via cell phones", "appropriate transportation", and "appropriate procedure in accommodation reservation" were some of the important factors in the quality of sport tourism package in Iran which were determined based on marketing mix elements.