Sahar Pirjamadi; Morteza Motahhari; Mehdi Karoubi; Ahmad Mahmoudi
Abstract
Introduction
The tourism industry, as the largest and most diverse industry in the world, is nowadays considered an essential source of income and an influential factor in cultural exchanges between countries. Many developed and developing countries consider this dynamic industry as the primary source ...
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Introduction
The tourism industry, as the largest and most diverse industry in the world, is nowadays considered an essential source of income and an influential factor in cultural exchanges between countries. Many developed and developing countries consider this dynamic industry as the primary source of income, job creation, private sector growth, and infrastructure development (Camilleri, 2018). Sport is also a significant and important industry in the current world. The integration of sports and tourism creates one of the most impressive modern service industries, namely the sports tourism industry (Cho et al., 2019). Gibson defines sports tourism as leisure-based travel in which people temporarily leave their homes to play or watch physical activities or see the attractions associated with those activities (Amin-Rostamkolaee & Poursoltani, 2019). The important point worthy of attention is the fact the climate of each region has a significant impact on drawing the future lines of tourism development. The multiple capabilities of receiving tourists in different areas and regions throughout the year pave the way for increasing tourism capacity, especially sports tourism (Karimi et al., 2018). In this regard, the free trade, industrial, and economic zones in Iran have unique capabilities for investment and planning in sports tourism, considering their favorable climate and various attractions and natural landscapes. Due to their special geographical and climatic location, most of these areas have ecological potential for attracting tourists, including pristine beaches, anticlines, and synods (Savadi et al., 2019). Therefore, tourism marketing for a country or a region is essential since marketing can provide potential tourists with information about what the region can offer, thus encouraging them to visit it (Nekmahmud et al., 2020). As one of the main pillars of the national development process, the sports tourism industry requires specific missions, visions, strategies, and policies, especially in free trade zones. In their research, Szemkovics et al., (2018) concluded that cultural-tourist indicators in an area increase the likelihood of investing in those areas. Kodirovna et al., (2020) stated that advertising in tourism is intended not only to attract tourists but also to create a clear and positive image of tourists, so advertising helps tourists to get acquainted with the place before a personal visit. Concerning the obstacles to the development of sports tourism, Abedi et al., (2021) refer to infrastructure as a matter of the utmost importance. Moreover, holding festivals and competitions of water and beach sports were identified as new strategies for developing sports tourism. Free trade zones with favorable climatic conditions, beautiful nature, and historical monuments and natural sites have many capabilities for establishing tourist activities, especially in the realm of sports. Every free zone also has its own special sports and sports competitions that can increase the number of tourists, including spectators, participants and organizers, and others.
Materials and Methods
As an applied research, the present article relies on the qualitative and exploratory method, coupled with the field method used to obtain data. The study explores and identifies the marketing feasibility indicators of sports tourism development in free trade, industrial, and economic zones in Iran. The statistical population of the study included all experts and knowledgeable individuals in the sports tourism industry; experts and professors in sports management with scientific and research backgrounds in sports tourism; tourism managers in free trade, industrial and economic zones; and scientists who had the necessary expertise related to the research. The research conducted a purposeful sampling to achieve an appropriate sample.
Results and Discussion
Twenty-one interviews with experts were conducted and then analyzed by MAXQDA software. A total of 341 primary identifiers were extracted. Having summarized and merged the identifiers that were semantically and conceptually common, the study identified a total of 145 identifiers categorized under 23 main categories and seven general concepts, as described below. The identified concepts and the relevant categories are as follows: 1) Promotion and advertising of tourist attractions (application of new digital and communication technologies, specialized and professional approach to advertising, environmental advertising, written and tangible advertising, virtual social media, and national media); 2) readiness and capacity-building in attracting domestic and foreign tourists (cultural and social capacity-building, management of tourist attractions, advertising and marketing, provision of quality of desirable services, support and reception from the private sector and investors); 3) stakeholder integration (local residents, government support for investment, and interaction and cooperation between organizations); 4) market risk acceptance (market risk, economic capacities, and free zones trade); 5) recognition of infrastructural and natural capacities (infrastructural facilities, natural attraction facilities, historical monuments, and support facilities); 6) past experiences and approaches (innovative and modern experiences and negative experiences); 7) experiences of neighboring countries in tourism development (successful experiences).
Conclusion
Among the mentioned components, the most frequent one is natural attraction facilities, which is consistent with the findings in Szemkovics et al. (2018). Their research concluded that cultural-tourist indicators in an area increase the likelihood of investing in those areas. Concerning the crystallization of sport as a need, sports tourism development, and its largest share in service industries in the world with further specialization, tourism nowadays provides the opportunity for every destination area to benefit from tourism. At the heart of this development, sports tourism can lead to new job opportunities as well as employment of women and the youth in activities related to the industry. Tourism potentialities are unique assets for each country, it is thus important to identify, classify, and plan for sports tourism. In fact, sports tourism requires comprehensive and efficient planning. At the same time, free trade zones, due to their unique features and capabilities, possess high potential for the development of the sports tourism industry. In this respect, the first economic effect of tourism is an increase in income for local residents in tourist areas, be it individual or collective income. The results of the present study suggest that the managers of Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism (including managers of investment, infrastructure and sample tourism areas, domestic tourism development, monitoring and evaluation of tourism services, cultural heritage and tourism free zones), of Ministry of Sports and Youth, of the organizations and relevant and influential departments and agencies (e.g., municipalities and decision makers) develop the tourism infrastructure in free zones concerning tourism hotels, transportation, etc.; improve the quality of existing infrastructure to increase tourist satisfaction and attract more tourists; establish recreational and sports complexes; pay more attention to areas with lower sports tourism infrastructure, to the establishment of special headquarters for sports tourism, training and recruitment of creative sports tourism specialists to maintain this national capital in Iran; increase funding for sports tourism in free zones; increase social and cultural security, prepare comprehensive and creative sports tourism plans in free zones; consistently publish books, articles, catalogs and photos of sports tourism attractions in free zones; pay attention to the growth and development of natural and urban environments, including natural attractions; use marketing and advertising techniques; conduct needs analysis; focus on purposeful activity of sports delegations in free zones; hold sports competitions organized by sports federations and hosted by free zones; and use the experiences of other prosperous countries.
