چكيده لاتين :
Introduction
Tourists need information about the destination in order to choose tourism destinations. They
are constantly gathering information from the mass media, including television, satellite, the
Internet, and so on. Although these resources provide valuable information to the tourist,
tourists prefer to receive a significant portion of the information that they need from the advice
and word-of-mouth of friends, relatives and acquaintances. In tourism marketing analysis, wordof-mouth advice leads to reduce marketing costs to attract visitors. Also, the destination advice
to others is a sign of a person's positive experience and satisfaction of the tourism destination. In
a competitive tourism market, utilization of powerful advertising tools to influence the attitude
and behavior of tourists to choose tourism destinations is one of the most important challenges
in marketing. Due to the intense and growing interest of people, sports tourism is one of the
leading and important sectors of the tourism industry and sporting events are as one of the key
tools in attracting tourists and destinations marketing. Word-of-mouth advertising of sports
tourists present at the event is one of the best advertising tools in a competitive market.
Therefore, according to the importance of sporting events on attracting tourists and its impact on
the destination word-of-mouth advertising, the present study has been codified with the aim of
investigating the factors affecting the word-of-mouth advertising of sports tourists in Gonbade
Kavous tourism destination.
Methodology
The study, is applied research based on the purpose and is descriptive-correlational one in terms
of collecting data method. Also, in point of the collected data, it is a quantitative (questionnaire)
type that has been implemented in the field. The statistical population of the research was all
professors, senior managers, tour leaders, coaches, referees, members of the media and tourists
at Gonbade Kavous sports tourism destinations, especially the traditional equestrian sporting
event in the spring of 1398, which 374 people as a statistical sample were selected by simple
random technique. Data were collected through a questionnaire. The validity and reliability of
the questionnaire were assessed and confirmed by 6 experts and also by using of Cronbach’s
alpha correlation coefficient and combined reliability, respectively. Data analysis was
performed by using of structural equation method via SMART PLS V2.0 M3 software.
Results and discussion
In view of the fact that the factor loading of the observed variables on the related structures are
between 0/667 and 0/988, and all of them are significant at the 1% error level. The results
indicate that service quality structures, perceived value and relationship marketing, as well as
the image of equestrian sporting event, have a positive and significant effect on tourists'
satisfaction of the tourism destination (P <0/05), perceived value structures, marketing
relationship and image of equestrian sporting events have a positive and significant effect on
building trust in tourism destination (P <0/05), the quality of services provided in the event does
not have a significant effect on trust in tourism at the 5% error level (P> 0/05), tourist
satisfaction, trust and loyalty structures have a positive and significant effect on word-of-mouth
advertising of tourists (P <0/05), as well as satisfaction quality and tourists’ trust of the event
have a positive and significant effect on the loyalty of tourists to destination (P <0/05). The
main criterion in the structural model evaluation is the coefficient of determination(R2), that
refers to the amount of variance explained by extrinsic structures. The results show that
extrinsic structures (service quality, relationship marketing, perceived value and event image)
explain 32/1% of structural changes of tourist satisfaction of the event; 2/21% of the tourists'
trust structure changes to the event are also explicated by the perceived value, relationship
marketing and event image structures; the tourist’s satisfaction and trust to the event,
accompanied by the loyalty structure, demonstrate 24.7% of the changes of the tourism
destination word-of-mouth advertising structure; and 9% of the loyalty structure changes are
also explained by the tourists ‘trust and satisfaction structures. Also, the values of the AcetoneGisser (Q2) coefficient for the satisfaction, trust, loyalty structures and word-of-mouth
advertising are greater than zero, which indicates the appropriate ability of the structural model
in forecasting.
Conclusion
The results of the research indicate that the word-of-mouth advertising of tourists is directly
affected by loyalty, satisfaction and trust and also it is indirectly influenced by the quality of
services, relationship marketing, perceived value and mental image, respectively. Based on the
study’s results, it can be concluded that with increasing of tourist’s trust, satisfaction and
loyalty, the word-of-mouth recommendation of the destination will be enhanced by tourists. If
tourists trust to a destination due to the experience of service quality and the formation of a
positive mental image during the sporting event, they will get satisfaction from the tourism
destination and so become loyal to the destination and finally, offer it to others. The important
conclusion of the research is that the experience of the tourists in the traditional equestrian
sporting event of Gonbade Kavous and gaining pleasure and excitement from equestrian
competitions causes satisfaction, loyalty and word-of-mouth advertising during and after the
trip. Therefore, in order to create tourist’s loyalty and their word-of-mouth advertising, it is
recommended that managers and officials of tourism destination management must have
continuous communication and evaluation of the services quality, value and perceived mental
image of tourists of the event and destination in order to improve the tourist’s satisfaction, trust
and loyalty to develop the word-of-mouth advertising of the destination with sufficient
awareness and knowledge of weaknesses and strengths.
