Authors
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the viewpoints of managers and experts on sport tourism development in Khorasan Razavi province. The statistical population consisted of managers and experts of tourism and sport in this province. The present study was of analytic descriptive kind. With regard to the lack of a standardized questionnaire complying with the goals of this study, a researcher-made questionnaire was devised and used after being confirmed in terms of validity and reliability (71%). The data were gathered and analyzed using SPSS software. Friedman test was used to rank and Wilcoxon test to examine the significance of the difference of mean ranks. The results showed that among the most important effects of sport tourism development were components such as “creating an atmosphere of happiness and liveliness in the society”, “people’s tendency to perform exercise and promote the health level of society” and “development of positive cultural exchanges and interactions among various cultures”. The most important organization in the development of tourism industry across the province was recognized to be “Tourism and Physical Education Organization”. Furthermore, three important factors impeding proper planning for sport tourism development across the province included “lack of planning of organizations in order to attract the sport tourists”, “inadequate support of the authorities from investors and sport tourism plans” and “lack of attention to the sport tourism attractions by the municipality officials”. Totally, 94.2% of the authorities and municipality and provincial experts declared their support for sport tourism development plans in Khorasan Razavi province. It is concluded that to promote sport tourism development and eliminate barriers and limitations across the province and subsequently to benefit from various potentials to attract sport tourism across this province, it is suggested that policy makers and the provincial planners should plan to promote development of sport tourism.
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