Identifying the Promoting and Restricting Factors of Development of Sport Tourism in the Public Sector (Case of Study: Ministry of Sport and Youth)

Today, sports tourism is relatively a new industry and one of the fastest growing areas in the tourism industry which have drawn the attention of many planners and policy makers. The goal of this study is to focus on governmental duties of Iranian Sport and Youth Ministry in order to identify criteria that have led to sport-tourism development, and moreover, to investigate the requirements of sport development and the possibility of supplying them. This study is a practical research in which the aspects and components of sport tourism and the challenges in front of sport tourist to travel to Iran have been identified, using a content analysis methodology. The results show that, in the tourism area, the components can be divided into three parts including structural, environmental, and managerial. As well, the components in sport tourism are categorized into three parts including infrastructural, managerial, and political-social-cultural. Also, the components related to challenges in front of sport tourists are categorized into four parts including managerial, infrastructural, cultural-political, and related to communication- advertisement.