Mohammad Slotan Hosseini; Mohammad Slotan Hosseini; Mehdi Salimi
Volume 19, Issue 49 , December 2020, , Pages 197-210
Abstract
The study is to investigate the role of destination familiarity in the branding of Iran as a sport tourism destination. The statistical population was consisted of all foreign tourists traveling to Iran. 360 people using convenience sampling method participated in the study as the statistical sample. ...
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The study is to investigate the role of destination familiarity in the branding of Iran as a sport tourism destination. The statistical population was consisted of all foreign tourists traveling to Iran. 360 people using convenience sampling method participated in the study as the statistical sample. The data gathering instruments were destination familiarity (Liu et al., 2018), destination brand image (Andersen et al., 2018) and behavioral intention (Wu et al., 2018) questionnaires and data analysis was structural based on equation modeling. The validity (content, convergent and divergent) and reliability (load factor, composite reliability coefficient, Cronbach's alpha coefficient) of the questionnaires indicated that they were of good reliability and validity.
The results showed that destination familiarity can significantly affect the brand image of the destination with the path coefficient of 0/83, and the image of the sports tourism destination can subsequently affect the behavioral intention of the sports tourists with the path coefficient of 0/68. Also, destination familiarity can directly affect behavioral intention of the sports tourists with the path coefficient of 0/63. In other words, by enhancing the familiarity, destination image and tourists’ behavioral intentions will affect positively. Totally, these findings indicate the role of destination familiarity in the branding of Iran as a sports tourism destination.
Based on the findings, it can be suggested that if Iran's sport tourism destinations seek to increase their share of the global sports tourism market, then they should pay special attention to the role of familiarity in branding Iran as a sports tourism destination.
Zahra Amouzadeh; Mohammad Soltan Hosseini; Masoud Naderian Jahromi; Mehdi Salimi
Volume 19, Issue 48 , September 2020, , Pages 29-56
Abstract
The study is to investigate the effects of social media marketing on the brand equity of the clubs of the Iranian Premier Football League. Due to the purpose, the study is applicable and is considered a descriptive – survey one. The statistical population were the fans of the teams in the 17th ...
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The study is to investigate the effects of social media marketing on the brand equity of the clubs of the Iranian Premier Football League. Due to the purpose, the study is applicable and is considered a descriptive – survey one. The statistical population were the fans of the teams in the 17th Iranian Football League (2017-2018), that had used the social media of clubs. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. Of the received questionnaires (1256), approved questionnaires (979) were chosen as the statistical samples. After confirming the content validity of questionnaires by the professors of marketing and media, their construct validity was verified by exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Using Cronbach's alpha, the reliability coefficient of brand equity questionnaire and marketing in social media were %89 and %95, respectively. In this research, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics including independent t-test, one-way ANOVA and structural equation modeling with Lisrel software were used. The results showed that except marital status, other personal characteristics (having a fan's card, age and degree of education) made a significant difference in the perception of the fans of brand equity. Also, the results indicated a positive and significant impact of social media marketing on the brand equity of the Premier League football clubs. Finally, it can be said that the use of the results of this study will help sports managers in the football industry to manage the team brand and develop strong and lasting relationships with fans in order to promote the brand equity of their clubs through social media.