Assessment of Opportunities and Future Capabilities of Sports Tourism Based on Spatial Planning Approach (Case Study: Lorestan Province)

Introduction :

Tourism is one of the largest and most profitable industries in the world and is used as a development strategy in many countries. The tourism industry is the main source of income and employment in many countries. It also contributes to the growth of non-governmental industries and infrastructure development.Given the importance of the tourism industry in the economic development of countries, it is necessary to identify different types of this industry and pay special attention to the more important types. Sports tourism is one of the growing and popular types of the tourism industry, which has emerged from the link between tourism and sports. Sports tourism is a formal or informal journey that people make for entertainment like watching sports matches. This type of tourism has become one of the important business and economic strategies for income, employment, and infrastructure development in many counties. Statistical data show that the countries with good sports tourism conditions contribute to a large part of their economy by this type of tourism. However, sports tourism can have implications for tourist areas that may benefit from or incur the costs of this development.One of the ways to develop sports tourism is to recognize and use the factors affecting its development. Tourist attractions such as high mountains, snow-covered areas, waterfalls, large rivers, etc. are among the potentials that can be used to develop sports tourism.  The purpose of this study is to identify the potentials of sports tourism and ways to develop them in the study area.

The present research was an applied study. It was conducted based on documentary-survey sources (researcher-made questionnaires). Using the available resources in the field of study, the most important components and criteria affecting the future opportunities and capabilities of sports tourism in Lorestan province were explored. In this regard, due to the diversity of contributing factors and to determine the consensus of thematic and local experts on each of the factors and the importance of each, the criteria have been reduced based on their importance. In this regard, the factors affecting sports tourism were identified by the experts by the Delphi questionnaire, and the data were analyzed using Mick Mac software.

 Discussion :

The findings showed that out of a total of 22 factors, 3 factors were in the cluster of dependent variables, 2 variables were in the intermediate cluster, 5 variables were in the cluster of independent variables, and 12 variables were in the cluster of key variables. This shows the diversity of key drivers in creating opportunities commensurate with tourism potentials. In other words, from the total of mentioned variables, 50% of the drivers are strategic (key) drivers.Of the total effective factors in creating opportunities commensurate with the capabilities of sports tourism, 54.5% were in the cluster of tourism opportunities, and 45.4% in the cluster of sports tourism potentials. Moreover, 54.5% of the factors mentioned in the terms of ‘capability assessment’ and ‘opportunistic proportionality’ were key variables, 22.7% were independent, 13.6% were dependent, and 9.09% were in the cluster of neutral variables.In terms of ‘opportunity’, the factors of ‘tourism identification and extra-regional, national and international networking’, ‘information and advertising outside the region’, ‘opportunity making appropriate with the capability of sports-oriented tourism’, ‘investing in sports tourism in present and future’, ‘tourism development policies and strategies’, ‘tourism business model and structure’ were key factors. The factor of ‘branding (symbolization) and fame of sports tourism and nature tourism’ and ‘accompanying tourists by providing free incentives and facilities’ except for the dependent factor, the factors of ‘institution and organization of sports tourism’, ‘bedding of cheap air transit and network price’ and ‘national and international agencies’ were considered as independent factors. The allocation of advertising funds is considered as a neutral or intermediate factor. In terms of ‘capability’, the factors of ‘tourism stabilization’, ‘attractiveness for out-of-province tourists with the priority of neighboring tourists’, ‘change of aid from agriculture to tourism’, ‘the impact of beneficiaries in the development of sports tourism’, ‘inexpensive tourism’, ‘combined tourism (sports, natural tourism, ecotourism, geo-tourism)’ were of the key factors. ‘Local and indigenous cultural-social reception of tourism’ was a dependent factor, and ‘existing capacity of tourism structure’ and ‘governmental-dependent institutional skillful requirements’ were independent factors.

Sports tourism is an emerging capability that has favorable spatial outcomes at sectoral, territorial, and organizational levels. This capability will have an objective-spatial reflection as a potential advantage when it creates an opportunity appropriate for this capability. In this regard, identifying the effective factors in the spatial development of sports tourism capabilities and future opportunities are essential. Therefore, 22 effective factors and drivers in utilizing the capabilities were identified and analyzed. In this regard, among the variables ‘opportunity’ and ‘capability’, the most influential factors in the current and future situation of sports tourism were the variable ‘opportunity’ with 54.5% and the variable ‘capability’ with 45.4%. This indicates that despite the sports tourism capabilities in the Lorestan Province, the variable ‘opportunity’ has a key role in future planning and achieving the desired spatial organization of sports tourism. The findings of the present study fill a gap in the research background, which can be considered in sports tourism.Major clustering of the effective factors in opportunities and the capabilities of sports tourism indicates that key drivers with 54% were significant. Independent variables with 23%, dependent with 14%, and intermediate variables with 9% were of the other contributing factors. Distribution analysis and the distribution of drivers by key, independent, dependent, and neutral factors indicates that the key factors that should be considered by planners and policymakers in formulating and designing spatial development scenarios for sports tourism are equally distributed in both variables of ‘opportunity’ and ‘capability’. This issue (the equal diversity of the key drivers) is also a new finding that can be considered in future planning related to sports tourism. Besides, among the key factors and drivers in the opportunity variable, ‘attractiveness factors for out-of-province tourists with the priority of neighboring tourists’ and in the capability variable of ‘tourism identity and extra-regional, national and international networking’ have the most impact.