Abstract

Abstract
Objective: Sports events are an abundant source of profit, income and economic impacts for any area. The purpose of the present study was to review the economic impacts of Tabriz Teractor team entry to soccer premier league on tourism industry of East Azarbaijan province.
Methodology: This study was descriptive- analytic. A survey that was a researcher-made questionnaire based on Van Blarcom economic model was conducted. The sample was equal to statistical population and included 568 participnats. Descriptive statistic methods were used for regulation and then inferential statistic methods like Pearson’s correlation coefficient, linear regression and Kruskal-Wallis (α=0.05) were used.
Results: The results indicated that holding football league matches in the province increased the number of tourists. Based on the results, there is a positive significant relationship between sport tourism income and hotel hospitality industry (r=0.29, p>0.01), transportation within the city (r=0.29, p>0.01), food industries (r=0.14, p=0.001), the number of visitors to historical attractions (r=0.11, p=0.007), and souvenirs purchase improvement (r=0.2, p>0.01). Share of the hotel hospitality industry, transportation in and outside the city, food industries, income of visiting spectacular tourist sites and purchase of souvenirs was 0.06, 0.04, 0.12, 0.10, 0.02, and 0.12 of the unit respecticely. Total income of sport tourism in this province has been 2232.31 million rials, but there is no significant relationship between income and GDP of the province (X2=2.02, p= 0.368).
Conclusion: Therefore, low level of competition is the best reason for not finding a significant relationship between sport tourism and increase in the GDP.
Keywords: Tabriz Teractor team, Tourism industry, GDP, Soccer premier league.