Sustainable Development Model of Sport Tourism of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Grounded Theory Based on Upstream Documents

The aim was to develop a paradigm model of sustainable development of sports tourism in Iran based on upstream documents. The study is fundamental and exploratory, which was performed by documentary method and qualitative content analysis using grounded theory method. The content analysis started with the constitution and 9 upstream documents were analyzed until the subject saturation was reached. Axial coding formed 319 open codes, 83 sub-categories and 26 main categories, and the formation of a communication network between them determined the central phenomenon, causal conditions, contextual conditions, intervening conditions, strategies and consequences. The sustainable development of sports tourism was chosen as the central phenomenon and the model was compiled by communicating with other main categories. Causal conditions including the independence of the government budget from public wealth and anthropological foundations, background conditions including social considerations, stakeholder participation, policy and planning and resistance economy, intervening conditions including desirable governance, Iranian-Islamic culture and identity, national and international solidarity, financing, The structure of society, sense of place and attention to historical requirements were in development. Strategies include marketing, infrastructure development of welfare and accommodation services, transportation management, management of sports tourism facilities and businesses, environmental management, management and training of tourism human resources, protection of sports tourism resources, and management of science, technology and innovation. And the outcomes included "sustainability of environment, natural resources and energy", development of peace, balanced development, and well-being of the host community. The developed model can be implemented using legal protection.