Analysis of the barriers to the development of sport tourism industry in Khouzestan province

Objective: the prime objective of the current study is to analyze the barriers to the development of sport tourism industry in Khouzestan province. Methodology: The present research is a descriptive content analysis study fulfilled through field methodology. The statistical population consists of experts of Kouzestan Headquarter of Physical Education (80 subjects) and experts of Khouzestan Tourism and Cultural Heritage Office (40 subjects). 120 researcher-made questionnaires whose content validity was approved by 10 physical education professors of Khouzestan province, and whose structural validity and reliability was determined through factor analysis (KMO=0.813) and Crounbach’s alpha methodology (?=0.93) were distributed amongst the subjects of which 105 were recollected and subjected to further analysis. Results and discussion: Factor analysis was applied to investigate the four different barrier types (management barriers, cultural barriers, substructural barriers, and marketing barrirs) which were all determined to significantly impact the development of sport tourism industry, though Friedman test suggested the ranking of the barrier factors to be as, 1: management barriers (3.99), 2: substructural barriers (2.77), 3) cultural barriers (1.75), and 4) marketing barriers (1.49). Conclusion: Taking steps toward the resolution of the four groups of aforementioned barrier factors can lead to the facilitation of the sport tourism development in Khouzestan province.