The factors attracting tourists toward athletic events (Case study of tourists visiting Iranian national football teams competitions)

there are some factors impacting on the intention of tourists to attend in an athleticevent and their choice process. Every country, cit y, and athletic event offers products and services to attract tourists and every tourist can choose one of different destinations or events. This research was conducted with the aim to study the factors attracting tourists toward athletic events.

the present research was conducted using descriptive- survey method in the field form. The sample size consisted of 319 individuals (n=319) of touristsvisiting Iranian national football teams competitions. In order to gather data, the Wimbledon questionnaire was employed. Its validity was confirmed by ten professors of Guilan University and ten tourism experts (it was previously determined to be %86 using CronbachsAlpha technique). Research finding were analyzed at a significant(p ≤0. 05) employing binominal distribution test.

research findings indicated that factors of advocate motivation, and the destination and novelty are very important in attracting the tourists, whilethe factors of self- evolutionism was not considered as an effective one the presence oftourists in athletic events.

research results showed the factors ofadvocate motivation, the destination and novelty play an important role in the presence oftourists in our sport events, while the factor of self-evolutionism is not so important in thiscase. Thus, it is suggested that the motivations of tourists visiting our athletic events shouldbe carefully studied and identified and considered in the planning in order to attract more tourists toward our sport events.