The Effect of Personal Information and Environmental Sources on the Image Gap of Sports Tourists

Having a good image of the destination is a very important place in tourism development. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of personal and environmental information sources on the image gap of sports tourists. The present study was applied and, in terms of purpose, was descriptive-correlational research. The statistical population of the study consisted of all tourists of Tochal, Dizin Shemshak and Abali ski resorts with at least 6 months of continuous presence or at least five times per year. To obtain the sample size, the Cochran's unlimited community sample size was used. The sample size was estimated at N=272. In this study, all statistical calculations of this study were performed using SPSS statistical software and analysis related to structural equation modeling using LISREL software. The results showed that the mean score of the status of personal information resources ( = 2.23), environmental information resources ( =2.46) and the image gap of sports tourists ( =2.41) and all its components indicated an unfavorable situation. There is a positive and significant relationship between personal and environmental information sources and the image gap of the destination of sports tourists (P=0.001). Finally, due to the positive impact of personal and environmental information sources on the image gap of sports tourists can be expressed, sports tourism destination managers need to pay attention to the attractiveness of information transmitted from different information sources to attract potential tourists and provide an image that is close to reality.