Branding of Equestrian Tourism Destinations In Iran: Identifying The Effective Potentials In Gonbad Kavous Equestrian Association

Sports linked to tourism represent the fastest growing sector in global tourism as several National Tourist Offices (NTOs) are working towards promoting their destinations focused on sports. In this vision, traditional and local sports as one of the most important dimension on sport tourism, has been considered impressively by sport and economic professionals. In fact, small-scale sports events are a sustainable form of tourism development for communities. Nevertheless, some sports events are a cultural creation and it can be an element of local identity at the same time as a tourist attraction. Geographical area of Golestan province with his important cultural roots such as equestrian, Gorosh and Alish wrestling, has significant potential in native and local sport festivals. Therefore the purpose of research was identifying the effective potentials to branding of equestrian tourism destinations in Gonbad Kavous equestrian association.The research was a survey research that was conducted by mixed method (qualitative-quantitative method). In the qualitative phase of the research, by snowball sampling, ۳۰ riders, trainers, horse breeders and managers of the riding complex participated in semi-organized interviews. In quantitative phase, ۳۵۰ tourists by randomly sampling completed the researcher-made equestrian questionnaire, including infrastructure, natural attraction, niche sports festivals, socio-cultural values, economics, and security sub-scales. Finally, the data were analyzed with SPSS and Lisrell software (P≤۰.۰۵).The results of Bartlett and KMO test confirmed the adequacy of sampling and construct validity of the research model (P≤۰.۰۵). The results of factor analysis test showed that socio-cultural values (LF=۰.۷۳), holding local and traditional festivals (LF=۰.۶۹) and infrastructure (LF=۰.۵۷) have the greatest impact on the branding of Gonbad Kavous equestrian association.Due to the existence of three international equestrian tracks in Golestan province, holding the traditional and native sports as an important strategy in order to attracting and extending the horse tourism industry with the economic consequents should be considered by the organizers of the Gonbad Kavous equestrian association