Investigating the Factors Affecting the Word-of-mouth Advertising of Sports Tourists in Tourism Destination (Case Study: Gonbad Kavous City)

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, word-of-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 Acetone-Gisser (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.