Presenting a model of the effects of tourism of sports venues on sustainable urban development (Case study: Mehdi Shahr city)

The purpose of this study is to present a model of the effects of sports facilities tourism on sustainable urban development. This research is a descriptive-survey research that has been done prospectively. The statistical population including university physical education professors, physical education experts, tourism experts and tour leaders were used using 385 people using Krejcie and Morgan table. They answered the questions of the questionnaire voluntarily. Karimi Sports Tourism Standard Questionnaire (2011) and Javid Sustainable Urban Development Questionnaire (1397) were distributed among them and 258 correct questionnaires were collected and analyzed. To analyze the data, first the Kolmogorov- Smirnov test was used to check the normality of the collected data, then to check the construct validity of the research variables and the resulting indices, the confirmatory factor analysis test was used. Finally, in order to test the research hypotheses, the structural equation modeling method was used. Also, for data analysis, SPSS software version 24 and LISREL version 8.1 were used. The results of model analysis showed that the proposed model has a high fit. Therefore, sports tourism has a positive and significant effect on sustainable urban development in sports facilities in Mehdi Shahr. Also, sports tourism has a positive and significant effect on the components of sustainable urban development (economic development, social development and environmental sustainability) in sports facilities in Mehdi Shahr.