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.
tourism management
Mehdi Karoubi; Fatemeh Yavari Gohar; seyed mojtaba mahmoudzadeh; Nasim Mohammadian Mahmoudjigh
Abstract
In recent years, some countries and destinations have used brands to describe themselves, in a way that "tourism nation branding" has become one of the main focuses of tourism marketing studies. On the other hand, tourism development depends more on tourism policy-making than the known underlying factors, ...
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In recent years, some countries and destinations have used brands to describe themselves, in a way that "tourism nation branding" has become one of the main focuses of tourism marketing studies. On the other hand, tourism development depends more on tourism policy-making than the known underlying factors, which imply the determination of governments to develop this industry, and it reflects in high-scale documents and laws as well as in monitoring their proper implementation. This study analyzes the branding approach in macro policies of tourism in Iran. The research is descriptive-analytical and qualitative. After reviewing the research background, tourism nation branding policies were extracted from the content of the selected documents by thematic analysis. Then 243 primary codes were categorized into 62 basic themes, 21 organizing themes, and four global themes entitled (1)Nation tourism branding, (2)Components, (3)Effects, and (4)Factors affecting it. Finally, the thematic network was drawn, and the results were interpreted. According to the findings, not only the specialized indicators of tourism nation branding but also the primary indicators of policy-making have been ignored. At the top of them are a lack of systematization, a lack of stability and integrity, and a lack of guidance on implementing decisions.IntroductionIt seems that an essential part of the challenge of not paying attention to tourism branding can be found in macro tourism policies and policy-makers' lack of attention to integrating tourism development and marketing measures through branding. Therefore, the present study is designed in response to this question of whether the branding approach can be discovered in macro tourism policies? So we can explain the situation of tourism branding in the macro perspectives of the country to identify gaps and fundamental shortcomings of the Iranian policy system in this field.In addition, a comparison of credible reports related to the national brand with tourism reports (before the Covid-19 epidemic) shows that 7 out of the top 10 countries in the NBI index presented in 2019 were among the top tourist destinations in the world (in terms of tourist attraction and income) in the same year, which was published in the report of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) entitled Tourism Highlights 2020.Materials and MethodsThe present study aimed to analyze the policies of different parts of the tourism nation branding in basic and large-scale documents, using thematic analysis. Then, the themes related to tourism branding were extracted. For this purpose, the basic (specific to tourism) and large-scale (macro) laws, documents, programs, and regulations of the Islamic Republic of Iran related to the field of tourism were identified (21 documents). Considering that the Iranian tourism industry has been influenced by the political institution more than anything else, the documents after the Islamic Revolution of Iran have been introduced and examined in this study. Then, based on the Attride-Stirling method, the coding was performed to identify basic themes (codes and points of the text), organizing themes (combining and summarizing basic themes), and global themes (governing the whole text) to form a thematic network. This research is descriptive-analytical and qualitative (in terms of the nature of the data).Discussion and ResultsThe first step- parsing the text: first, the content of the documents was studied independently by the researchers, and the irrelevant or unuseful information was removed. Then, by separating the useful and related points, for example, the related content to tourism, branding, and its dimensions (explicitly or implicitly), the coding process began, and the basic themes were identified based on the initial codes.The second step- interpreting the text and drawing the thematic network: In the next step, 243 initial codes were identified after reviewing the basic themes and ensuring the method of classification, naming, and adapting them to the original codes. Then, the primary codes were categorized into 62 basic themes, 21 organizing themes, and four global themes entitled (1) Nation tourism branding, (2) Components, (3) Effects, and (4) Factors affecting it. Finally, the thematic network was drawn, and the results were interpreted.ConclusionsAs confirmed in the present study, despite the importance of the tourism industry as an economic sector in the world, tourism nation branding has received little attention from policy-makers and the planning system in Iran. So that, only designing a random logo and slogan has been considered. Even designing and implementing a promotional program (albeit short-term) did not matter much for the same logo. In this regard, contrary to the consensus of researchers on the process of place branding and destinations branding, such an approach can not be traced in the selected documents, which shows the lack of importance of tourism branding in the field of public policy and tourism policy. The findings of this study are in line with the research literature. However, there are many obstacles along the way. According to the findings, it seems that given the current situation and the incomprehensible position of tourism nation branding in public policy, Iran is not currently ready to develop a purposeful and coherent tourism nation brand in the long run.
Salman Alavi; Mehdi Karoubi; Esmaeil Zabihi; Seyed Hosein Alavi
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify the consequences of covid-19 in sport tourism and providing solutions. This research was done by qualitative method, thematic analysis, which is applied and exploratory in terms of purpose. The statistical population consisted of all experts in the field of sport ...
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The purpose of this study was to identify the consequences of covid-19 in sport tourism and providing solutions. This research was done by qualitative method, thematic analysis, which is applied and exploratory in terms of purpose. The statistical population consisted of all experts in the field of sport management, Sociology, and Tourism. Access to subjects was selected in a purposive sampling method through Interviewing with 14 people, theoretical saturation occurred here. The results showed that the consequences of the coronavirus on sports tourism included 40 sub-categories, which were placed in 9 main-categories. Finally, four concepts of job outcomes, event, sustainable development, and post-coronavirus ones were obtained. The results showed that the suggested solutions included 51 sub-categories placed in 11 main categories. Finally, five concepts were obtained that were Economic, health, infrastructure, management, and post-coronavirus solutions. Theoretically, having seen for future studies in the field of sport tourism and sport management foundationally, results can be used to help scientific richness in these fields complete. Practically, all relevant organizations and managers can know the current and future challenges and use the proposed solutions to deal with current and future situations.
Mehdi Karoubi; Sasan Ahmadi
Abstract
Today, developing Medical tourism especially for developing countries is one of the sources of income. If any development in the body of tourism not within the strategic planning framework, and which does not consist of continuous control and preventive actions, will, in different dimensions, ...
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Today, developing Medical tourism especially for developing countries is one of the sources of income. If any development in the body of tourism not within the strategic planning framework, and which does not consist of continuous control and preventive actions, will, in different dimensions, meet negative and irrecoverable impacts. Hence, the present study is to examine the position of medical tourism in Shiraz in order to formulate appropriate strategies for proper and comprehensive development. This research method is a combination of surveys and descriptive-analytics. 80 medical tourists and 20 medical tourism experts were selected as a random sample, and, for samples, strategic factors through questionnaires were distributed. Data collected were set in the framework of the Strategic SWOT model, and computational steps were computed using decision-making method based on Fuzzy-TOPSIS. Analysis of findings showed that according to the focus of the first, second, and third strategy obtained from combining Comments of sample groups, focus strategy to action is an aggressive one.
Mahdi Karobi; Fatemeh Yavari Gohar; Reza Sarkheil
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of eco-tourism culture on conservation of Lar National Park. The research method was descriptive-survey and the data were collected by field survey. The statistical population of this study was all the researchers (ecotourists) of Lar National Park ...
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The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of eco-tourism culture on conservation of Lar National Park. The research method was descriptive-survey and the data were collected by field survey. The statistical population of this study was all the researchers (ecotourists) of Lar National Park in 2017. Due to the limited statistical population (more than 100 thousand people), the statistical sample of the study was 384 tourists based on statistical tables (Krejci & Morgan) using an available sampling method. After distributing and collecting data and separating incomplete and confused questionnaires, statistical analysis was performed on 345 questionnaires. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire which its face and content validity were confirmed by 11 professors of tourism and environmental sciences. The structural validity of the questionnaire was examined by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The reliability of the questionnaire through Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the ecotourist culture’s questionnaire and national park protection’s questionnaire were obtained (α = 0.89) and (α = 0.90) respectively. For data analysis, descriptive statistics, mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used and the research model was analyzed using SPSS and LISREL software. This project indicated that the variables of responsibility, social behavior, normalization, education, knowledge and awareness, and religious and traditional values are affecting environmental behaviors. As a general result, it can be said that culture is the determinant for tourist’s behavior in national parks and the environmental behavior of individuals in a community originated from this key factor.
Morteza Khazaei Pool; Abolfazl Tajzadehnamin; Hamid Zargham Boroujeni; Mehdi Karoubi
Abstract
This research has two main objectives, the first goal is to provide an entrepreneurial marketing model for the hotel industry in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the second goal is to measure entrepreneurial marketing and its effects on hotel performance. To do this research an exploratory mixed method ...
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This research has two main objectives, the first goal is to provide an entrepreneurial marketing model for the hotel industry in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the second goal is to measure entrepreneurial marketing and its effects on hotel performance. To do this research an exploratory mixed method (qualitative-quantitative) have been used. In the qualitative section, the researcher used qualitative content analysis to develop an entrepreneurial marketing scale and a model. To gather data; in-depth interviews have been used with 20 directors of 3, 4 and 5-star hotels in Tehran. In the quantitative sector, in order to collect data, three questionnaires of entrepreneurial marketing, financial and non-financial performance was used. Accordingly, 48 questionnaires of entrepreneurial marketing and financial performance and 384 questionnaires of non-financial have been gathered. For the validity of the questionnaires, Corrected Item-Total Correlation, content validity ratio, face validity, and confirmatory factor analysis were used and for reliability Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability (Dillon-Goldstein's rho coefficient) were calculated by using the Smart PLS software. The results showed that everything was appropriate. Structural equation modeling was also used to test the hypotheses of the research using Smart PLS software. The results confirm the direct impact of entrepreneurial marketing on financial performance and rejecting the mediating role of non-financial performance in transferring the effect of entrepreneurial marketing on financial performance
Mehdi Karobi; zeinab amiri
Abstract
Incoming tour guides’ performance as cultural representatives and line workers is very important in cross-cultural interactions. The purpose of this research is to identify and Prioritize effective characteristics on performance of incoming tour guides from the perspective of foreign tourists. ...
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Incoming tour guides’ performance as cultural representatives and line workers is very important in cross-cultural interactions. The purpose of this research is to identify and Prioritize effective characteristics on performance of incoming tour guides from the perspective of foreign tourists. This is an applied research and in terms of the data collection method, it is descriptive-survey. The statistical population of this study included all foreign tourists on guided tours in the period of April to July 2015 in Tehran. A sample of 385 people was obtained using Cochran's formula. Of these, 328 tourists responded to the questionnaire. For data analysis, Friedman test, confirmatory factor analysis, SPSS, and LISREL software have been used. The results show from the foreign tourists’ perspective, priorities of professional and specialized characteristics is higher than individual characteristics and behaviors on the performance of incoming tour guides.
