Summary: | Nowadays, sport tourism has greatly expanded to include a wide range of
activities, based on which, by arranging facilities and considering the
marketing approaches, this type of tourism can be developed in Iran and
in the Ardabil province particularly. Despite the importance of sport
tourism, yet no serious study has taken place in this respect in the
mentioned province or in Iran at all. Since sport tourism is a new concept
in Iran’s tourism industry and Ardabil province, so the important issue is
how to utilize these opportunities and capabilities in a right manner from
the marketing perspective. In line of what was said above, in this
opportunity, it is attempted to review the sport tourism, and in the
meanwhile, to investigate the perspective of domestic sport tourists about
sport tourism marketing mix, and to develop an appropriate pattern
accordingly. This is a descriptive – survey study, from the research
method perspective. Data are gathered through secondary and primary
sources. The target population of the study are the domestic tourists who
have travelled to Ardebil, Meshkin Shahr and Sar' e Ein cities, which are
the major sport tourism centers of Ardebil province. Therefore, a
questionnaire was designed based on the personal and behavioral
characteristics of the tourists and the 8 P’s of sport tourism marketing
mix; afterwards, the questionnaires were distributed among 110 sport
tourists by means of accidental sampling method. Appropriate analysis
were made for each of the marketing mix components by utilizing
different statistical tests namely, Kolmogrov - Smirnov, Binomial
distribution, one sample T- test and Friedman test. In general, results of
Friedman test shows that there were weaknesses regarding to the
components of “productivity and quality”, “process” and “place and
time” according to priority. Also based on the findings of research a
mathematical pattern was developed.
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