Sports Tourism and Sustainable Development of Host Cities (A Case Study: Sarein Winter Sports Festival)

In recent years, tourism has introduced itself as an instrument for sustainable development of host community. The study is to investigate the role of sport tourism in the development of Sarein city. This is a surveying descriptive applied study. The statistical population included of tourists, residents, local authorities and officials of the Serein Winter Sports Festival. Due to the uncertainty of the number of statistical populations, 384 participants were selected randomly as statistical sample using Cochran formula for unknown population size. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire that was distributed after validation and reliability (α=89). Data from 337 returned questionnaires were analyzed by SPSS V.24 and Amos V.24 software and One-Sample T-Test and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were used. The results of data analysis showed that sport tourism has a positive and significant role in all aspects of development (p<0/05). Also, in evaluating the indicators for each of developmental dimensions, the index «Creating new jobs and reducing unemployment» in economic development, «combating ethnic and racial discrimination and helping to accept socio-cultural differences» in social development and «changing in behavior of Local residents in order to better protect from environment» in the environmental dimension were the most important indicators of sustainable development in the studied area.