Rural sports and local games: missing link between sports tourism development and sustainability

ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to design a model for the development of sustainable sports tourism based on rural sports and local games (RSLG) in Mazandaran province of Iran. The study was conducted using a mixed-method comprised of qualitative and quantitative phases. The qualitative phase utilized grounded theory and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed in three stages of open, axial and selective coding and a model was developed based on the derived codes. The findings indicated that sustainable sports tourism development based on RSLG is influenced by six different categories: ‘policy-making’, ‘marketing’, ‘finance and support’, ‘religious and social participation’, ‘infrastructure’ and ‘management and planning’. In the quantitative phase, partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to validate the model. The statistical population of this phase included the organizational staff operating in the fields of tourism and sport, organized coaches, referees and athletes of rural sports in Mazandaran. The findings of this phase revealed that the categories of ‘policy-making’ (0.461), ‘marketing’ (0.351), ‘financial and supporting’ (0.303), ‘religious and social participation’ (0.318), ‘infrastructure’ (0.166) and ‘management and planning’ (0.506) affect the independent variable sustainable sports tourism development based on RSLG.