Scenario Planning of the Future of Sports Tourism Industry in Mashhad

Background. The concept of sport tourism has become very popular in recent years as a field of study and a tourism product and has attracted the attention of many researchers. Objectives. This study aimed at future scenario planning of the Mashhad metropolitan sports tourism industry. Methods. It was applied future analytical exploratory research. The information was collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 13 management, marketing, and sports tourism experts including 7 sections and 50 key indicators. A 50 * 50 cross-over matrix was used to analyze the data collected by Mic Mac Software. Results. Based on the findings of the study, seven general categories of factors (influencers to being influenced) were identified: natural drivers, social-cultural drivers, managerial and programmatic drivers, economic drivers, advertising drivers, service drivers, and infrastructure drivers. Conclusion. Mashhad has great potential for attracting sports tourism in the near future with great human, natural and religious potentials and talents. It is hoped to take steps to improve tourism in the city.