Abstract

Abstract
Objective: The purpose of the study was to design strategies for recreational sport tourism development in Iran.
Methodology: This research is analytic descriptive. The research population were 200 elites including presidents and vice presidents of national federations,  the managers of Sport and Youth Ministry, some faculty members and presidents of Tourism organization. The questionnaire was formulated as the result of studying the existent status of sport tourism in Iran and the viewpoints of strategic board. Binominal test and Descriptive analysis were used for significant determination of items' importance and ranking them respectively.
Results: The results demonstrated the significant importance of 11 strengths, 14 weaknesses, 8 opportunities and 10 threats in recreational sport tourism in Iran.
Conclusion: Eight strategies were formulated for developing recreational sport tourism, using Strategic Board’s opinions and pair comparison of the significant items. The strategies are as follows: developing strategies for holding the national and international sport events in the regions with proper capacity for recreational sport tourism; establishing special sites for recreational sport events in various regions of the country; compiling and implementing a comprehensive system for continuous evaluation and analysis of the various kinds of recreational sport tourism's benefits for the country; introducing the recreational sport tourism industry to the society using propaganda and marketing; providing a system for introducing the recreational sport tourism attractions at the margin of the sport events; providing internet sites for introducing and marketing the recreational sport tourism attractions; compiling a comprehensive system for attraction of domestic and foreign investments in recreational sport tourism section; training the management specialists in the sections, institutes and organizations involved in sport tourism; and compiling a comprehensive system for privatization of the sport tourism based on the policies of the 44 principle.
Keywords: Strategies, Sport Tourism, Development, Iran