Consequences Of Developing Sports Tourism in Golestan Province

Sports tourism has been considered a new form of tourism in recent decades, and sports activities in the form of sports tourism are one of the most suitable and diverse places for creating employment and generating new entrepreneurial opportunities. The present study aimed to identify the consequences of sports tourism development in Golestan Province. This research is applied in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of method, exploratory, based on data-based theory and Glaser's approach. The statistical population of the research included university professors related to the research topic and experts in the field of tourism. From this population, ۱۴ people were selected as a sample purposefully (judgmentally) based on criteria of education, expertise, and experience related to the research. This number continued until theoretical saturation was reached, at which point new data added nothing new to the findings. To collect data, two methods were used: semi-structured interviews and library study. Interviews include general and specialized questions tailored to the interviewees' experiences and expertise, and additional questions are also asked during the interview process. In addition, to complement the interview findings, theoretical sources including documents, evidence, and texts related to the research topic were used. In order to increase internal validity, after each interview, the results were given feedback to the interviewee and necessary changes were made. For the final verification of the tool, the coding method was used between the interviews conducted at two different times. Data analysis was performed through descriptive statistics and the Glaser method was used to achieve the desired model. The results of the research showed that the consequences of tourism development in Golestan Province include economic, educational, managerial, environmental, cultural, and social factors.