شناسایی عوامل موثر در توسعۀ گردشگری ورزشی سالمندان در ایران

هدف از پژوهش حاضر، شناسایی عوامل موثر در توسعۀ گردشگری ورزشی سالمندان در ایران بود. پژوهش حاضر به‌لحاظ هدف، توسعه‌ای است و در دستۀ تحقیقات توصیفی از نوع پیمایشی قرار می‌گیرد که به‌صورت میدانی اجرا شد. جامعۀ آماری شامل اساتید، صاحب‌نظران حوزۀ گردشگری ورزشی بودند که در بخش کیفی شامل 16 نفر به روش نمونه‌گیری هدفمند و در بخش کمّی شامل 281 نفر بودند که به روش نمونه‌گیری تصادفی ساده به‌عنوان نمونه انتخاب شدند. به‌منظور جمع‌آوری داده‌ها، از روش تحقیق دلفی و پرسش‌نامه استفاده شد. متخصصان روایی پرسش‌نامه‌ را تایید کردند و پایایی آن با استفاده از آلفای کرونباخ بالای 0.7 به‌دست آمد. در تجزیه‌وتحلیل داده‌ها، از آمار توصیفی و آمار استنباطی مانند تی تک‌نمونه‌ای در نرم‌افزار اس‌پی‌اس‌اس نسخۀ 26 و تحلیل سلسله‌مراتبی در اکسپرت چویس نسخۀ 11 استفاده شد. براساس نتایج پژوهش، مولفه‌های عوامل درونی، فردی، نرم‌افزاری، محیطی، توجه به امکانات، بازاریابی و مدیریتی به‌عنوان عوامل موثر در توسعۀ گردشگری ورزشی سالمندان در ایران شناخته شدند. همچنین در بین مولفه‌های توسعۀ گردشگری، به‌ترتیب مولفه‌های حقوقی مالی، محیطی و مدیریتی مهم‌ترین مولفه‌ها در توسعۀ گردشگری ورزشی سالمندان شناخته شدند. نتایج پژوهش حاضر بر لزوم تقویت شاخص‌هایی ازقبیل ارتقای کیفیت زیرساخت‌های موجود، سرمایه‌گذاری بخش خصوصی، تشکیل ستاد ویژۀ گردشگری سالمند، تبلیغات، طرح‌ها و خدمات خلاق، بودجه، تسهیلات حمل‌ونقل، نیازسنجی علمی و استفاده از تجارب کشورهای موفق تاکید دارد.

identifying factors affecting the development of elderly sports tourism in iran

the purpose of this research was to identify the factors affecting the development of sports tourism for the elderly in iran. in terms of the developmental and fundamental purpose, the current research was a survey-type descriptive research that was carried out in the field. the statistical population consisted of professors, experts in the field of sports tourism, in the qualitative section, 16 people were selected by purposeful sampling, and in the quantitative section, 281 people were selected as samples by simple random sampling. in order to collect data, delphi research method and questionnaire were used. the validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and its reliability was obtained using cronbach’s alpha above 0.7. in the data analysis, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics such as sample t-test in spss version 26 software and hierarchical analysis in expert choice version 11 were used. based on the research results; the components of internal, individual, software, environment, attention to facilities, marketing and management factors were recognized as effective factors on the development of sports tourism for the elderly in iran. also, among the components of tourism development, legal-financial, environmental and managerial components were recognized as the most important components in the development of sports tourism for the elderly. the results of the current research emphasize the need to strengthen indicators such as improving the quality of existing infrastructure, private sector investment, establishing a special senior tourism headquarters, advertising, creative plans and services, budget, transportation facilities, scientific needs assessment and using the experiences of successful countries. 1. introductionin the last few years, the tourism industry has become one of the most essential economic parts of different countries (kamiler, 2018). today, tourism is in the second rank of employment-generating and capital-producing industries, after the oil industry. for this reason, in recent years, economic managers of many countries have paid more attention to the development of this industry and tried to have a larger share of the global market of this industry, and the tourist has changed from a general concept to a special or specialized tourist. (yavari et al., 2015 and heydari et al., 2016). sports tourism is considered a part of the tourism industry, which can be taken effective steps for the development of economic prosperity by properly planning and identifying its benefits and limitations. the expansion of sports tourism can have many effects in creating employment, and production, generating general income, and stimulating the national and international economy (lagarnes et al., 2019). on the other hand, tichava et al. (2018) stated that the phenomenon of sports tourism has played a fundamental role in the development of tourists in global tourism and is seen as an important tool for development in countries (chang et al., 2020). on the other hand, aging is an important phenomenon in the world today, which is due to the increase in the world’s elderly population. in the coming years, iran will be one of the countries with the fastest-growing elderly population (azizi, 2014).2. literature reviewthe results of the research of gaitanakis and livadi (2020) also showed that the creation of luxury facilities and the creation of high-quality sports infrastructure and special events greatly promote sports tourism. in reviewing new research; the results of zhao (2022) indicate that in examining the relationship between leisure sports tourism and the health of the elderly, it is necessary to pay more attention to the advertising component of sports tourism activities. the findings of bonpat et al. (2022) indicate that factors such as tourist attractions, ethnic diversity, cultural diversity, the beauty of landscapes, and the architecture of buildings lead to the promotion of elderly tourists. esaadi et al. (2016) concluded in their research that insurance factors, health standards, security, special services, and transportation conditions play an important role in the development of elderly tourism. the results of mahdavi et al.’s research (2017) showed that the values of elderly tourists are caused by individual and personality characteristics, travel motives, travel experience, travel style, and travel pleasure. saida ardakani et al. (2018) concluded that the development of appropriate marketing strategies plays an important role in the emerging market of elderly tourism in iran. ahangaran and shirafken (1400) concluded that leisure behaviors have a positive effect on the dimensions of subjective and perceptive quality of life, including physical health, mental health, social relations, and environmental health of the elderly in tehran. the background check shows that despite the issue of sports tourism for the elderly in recent decades as a global issue and the high status of tourism in the lives of the elderly; so far, no research with this title has been carried out in the country level, and few researches have investigated the general concept of tourism in the elderly community and the study of sports for the elderly. it seems that there is a research gap in this area and it is necessary to conduct research in line with the development of tourism for the elderly.3. methodologythe current research was a descriptive survey in terms of its developmental purpose and was carried out in the field. the statistical population included university faculty members, academic experts, managers of the ministry of cultural heritage, tourism, and sports tourism specialists consisting of 16 people who were selected by purposeful sampling. according to the purpose of the research; by using the qualitative approach and the delphi research method, while studying the dimensions and components of sports tourism development, these factors were provided to a group of experts and they were asked to identify the most important factors for the development of sports tourism for the elderly and the less important and insignificant factors. remove the importance. they were also asked, if possible, to specify the factors that are important and not mentioned in the model. then the initial questionnaire was designed based on the information obtained from this stage. then the redesigned questionnaire was given to the experts and finally, the most important dimensions and components of the development of sports tourism for the elderly were ranked. in the quantitative part, based on cochran’s formula with an unknown population size, 281 of them were selected as a sample by simple random sampling, and the questionnaire was designed based on the delphi design, among the members of the statistical sample (university faculty members, academic experts, elderly tourists, managers of the ministry of cultural heritage, tourism and sports tourism specialists) were distributed. the form and content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by 12 professors and the construct validity was confirmed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. also, in this research, to calculate the internal reliability of the questionnaire questions used; in a preliminary study of 30 questionnaires among the research samples, the distribution and value of the internal reliability coefficient (cronbach’s alpha) for the component of individual factors, attention to facilities and system management were obtained as 0.87, 0.84 and 0.91 respectively, which shows the used questionnaire has acceptable reliability. in this research, descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to analyze the data.4. resultsaccording to the significance level of the components of internal, individual, software, environmental factors, attention to facilities, marketing, and management which is less than 0.05; it can be said that there is a significant difference between the average of the components of internal, individual, software, environmental, attention to facilities, marketing and management factors affecting the development of sports tourism for the elderly with the hypothetical average, and according to the significance level of the components of external, legal-financial factors, scientific-research and system management that is more than 0.05; it can be said that there is no significant difference between the average components of external factors, legal-financial, scientific-research and system management with the hypothetical average.5. conclusionaccording to the results of the present study, the elderly who actively participate in sports tourism activities have better mental, internal, self-confidence, hope, vitality, and quality of life. it is predicted that guiding the elderly towards sports tourism activities will help positively in increasing their quality of life psychologically. therefore, to increase the participation of the elderly in sports tourism activities, the actions of urban planners should be organized. another factor in the development of sports tourism for the elderly was paying attention to software factors, especially specialized human resources. for example, the elderly tourist pays to enjoy his minutes; but in some cases, the lack of appropriate treatment and the lack of familiarity with the tourism industry forces the importance of the work, causing tourists not to return to that area. therefore, it can be said that one of the important tools for the development of the sports tourism industry is the use of specialized, creative, and motivated human resources, which should be considered real wealth in the sports tourism industry. in this regard, the lack of attention to environmental and technological changes, as well as the training of specialized human resources and the provision of necessary training to them as the most influential geographical element, as well as neglecting the coordination and matching of the qualitative and quantitative level of human resources with the level of scientific and technical development or another language of human resource empowerment will create many problems for the growth and development of the elderly sports tourism industry.finally, according to the results of this research, it is suggested to the managers of the ministry of cultural heritage and tourism and the ministry of sports and youth, relevant organizations, departments and institutions to develop infrastructure in the fields of sports tourism (hotel, transportation, etc.) elderly people, improving the quality of existing infrastructure to increase the satisfaction of tourists and attract more elderly tourists, private sector investment, the formation of a special headquarters for tourism-sports for the elderly, increasing the budget for sports tourism for the elderly, increasing the social and cultural safety factor, developing comprehensive plans for creative sports tourism, training of educational institutions of human resources specialized in the field of sports tourism for the elderly, more advertising with the aim of creating awareness of the benefits of sports tourism for the elderly and providing various services, special facilities in terms of transportation and commuting to sports recreation places, using experiences other countries have successfully conducted land surveys and scientific needs assessment in the field of recreational and sports needs of the elderly.