List of Articles Mashhad

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  1 - Socio - economic factors affecting overnight stays of domestic tourists (case study: Mashhad)
  Hadi Rafiy    
  Tourist overnight stays is a key factor in decision making process for tourists and it has a fundamental importance for tourism destinations. Length of stay is one of the most important determinants of tourism which affects the economy of a region. Mashhad is one of the More

  Tourist overnight stays is a key factor in decision making process for tourists and it has a fundamental importance for tourism destinations. Length of stay is one of the most important determinants of tourism which affects the economy of a region. Mashhad is one of the tourist destinations which its tourists and pilgrims was increased in number but their average length of stay was decreased recently. According to statistics, about 75 percent of pilgrims and tourists of Mashhad stay less than a week and only 25% of them are staying more than one week and the overnight stay average of Mashhad pilgrims is 5/43 days. The main objective of this study is to identify the socio-economic factors affecting the overnight stays of tourists and pilgrims in Mashhad. For this purpose, 692 questionnaires were completed randomly among tourists and pilgrims of Mashhad in spring 2015. Data were evaluated by Ordered Logit Model. The length of stay (the dependent variable) is classified into three groups; less than five days, between 5 to 7 days and more than 7 days. Results showed that the type of trip (Lonely), the frequency of traveling to Mashhad , the number of family members accompanying during the trips, food preparing ways and education level, have significant negative effects and the type of transportation (train) and income level (between 10.000.000 – 20.000.000 IRR) have significant positive effects on tourists and pilgrims overnight stay in Mashhad. Manuscript profile
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  2 - Geniality, Deception, and Profiteering: the pilgrims’ perception of retail stores in Mashhad
     
  Mashhad is one of the largest religious tourism markets in Iran and in the Muslim world. Sustainable development of this market is dependent on mutual satisfaction of service providers and tourists as customers. One of the important sectors of tourism services is shoppi More

  Mashhad is one of the largest religious tourism markets in Iran and in the Muslim world. Sustainable development of this market is dependent on mutual satisfaction of service providers and tourists as customers. One of the important sectors of tourism services is shopping and souvenirs, which is mainly provided by retailers. Therefore, this paper tries to identify the tourists’ perceptions of these retailers in Mashhad. In the field of customer satisfaction, customer perception of service provider- customer interaction, is one of the dimensions of service qualities which determine tourists’ shopping experience. For data collection, a random number of 410 pilgrims who have visited the holy shrine of Imam Reza were asked to describe retailers in Mashhad. Collected data was analyzed by quantitative and qualitative content analysis method, pilgrims’ answers were categorized and then the frequency of each category was calculated. The results revealed that three categories of Profiteering, Deception, and Geniality, respectively include 40.7, 36.3, and 27.1 percent of the responses, which are the highest frequencies among the traits attributed to retailers. This could mean that pilgrims’ image of retailers is a person who uses deception and geniality strategies for his profiteering goals. It seems that temporal characteristic of tourist-buyers, as well as tourists’ insists for discounting, lead retailers to "flexible deception" strategies which more guarantee their interests. Manuscript profile
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  3 - Exploring the Souvenir purchasing behaviour (Case study: Mashhad Pilgrims)
     
  Souvenir purchasing is not only a memento of travel experience, but also a tourist attraction. Furthermore, souvenir shopping is an integral component of one’s travel experience which has a significant proportion of overall travel expenditure in tourism industry turnove More

  Souvenir purchasing is not only a memento of travel experience, but also a tourist attraction. Furthermore, souvenir shopping is an integral component of one’s travel experience which has a significant proportion of overall travel expenditure in tourism industry turnover. As a result, market identification is of critical importance to producers, marketers, wholesaler and retailers. However, regarding the souvenir purchasing behaviour not much research has been conducted and this subject is still under study in Iran. With a great number of tourist arrivals and various types of souvenir, Mashhad has a great potential to be considered as a case study. So, the aim of this paper is to explore; what will pilgrims buy and what factors will drive their purchasing behaviour? Accordingly, secondary data analysis has been conducted on the gathered data from Mashhad pilgrims 2010 and 2011 survey. Based on the pilgrims' dominant purchasing choices, four different behaviour was identified: purchasing of cultural symbols, purchasing of local foods, mixed purchasing behaviour of clothes, accessories and cultural signs, and non-purchase behaviour. The most common observed, purchasing behaviour was "mixed purchasing behaviour of clothes, accessories and cultural signs". In addition, the logistic regression test showed that purchasing behaviour was determined by age, place of residence (city), tourist's dominant behaviour in travel (pilgrimage), travel style (travelling in a group or alone) and frequency of travel. Those variables predicted 23% of variance of souvenir purchasing behaviour. Manuscript profile
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  4 - Investigating the Scenarios of non-Muslim non-Iranian Tourists of Mashhad Within 2025 Perspective
  Arash   Ghahreman Ahmad roumiani Sareh   Nematian zahra bostan
  10.61186/journalitor.35761.11.23.105
  The uncertainty caused by environmental complexities has made it difficult to forecast the future of Tourism in Mashhad in terms of non-Muslim tourists visiting the city, about whom no sufficient information exists. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the trend More

  The uncertainty caused by environmental complexities has made it difficult to forecast the future of Tourism in Mashhad in terms of non-Muslim tourists visiting the city, about whom no sufficient information exists. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the trend of variations in the visits made to Mashhad by non-Muslim tourists using the scenario writing method. To this end, this applied study used the analytical-qualitative approach, collecting the required data through detailed in-person interviews. In this regard, twenty-seven interviews were made in three phases with tourism experts in such fields as sociology, economics, planning, and specialized tourism services. In the first phase, the factors involved in attracting non-Muslim tourists to Mashhad were identified according to the views offered by the experts in interviews using the Delphi technique. In the second phase, the critical driving forces were identified based on two criteria of effectiveness and uncertainty. Finally, the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios concerning the future of non-Muslim tourism in Mashhad were described. The study’s findings revealed that smartizing tourism, making connections between tourism in Mashhad and its neighboring cities, increasing the number of media advertisements, improving the hospitality culture, and promoting a sense of security in the visiting tourists were the most important driving forces at the local level. Therefore, the number of Mashhad’s non-muslim tourists could be increased within the study period by improving IT infrastructure (including electronic trading, and electronic banking), introducing neighboring cities and villages of Mashhad and their tourist attractions, offering instructions regarding hospitality (especially for taxi drivers, business and shop owners), creating tourism police, and providing security in high-trafficking urban places. Manuscript profile
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  5 - Network Analysis of Organizational Cooperation in Tourism Destination Management
  Asghar   Tahmasebi mehri zavarniya
  Organizational cooperation is regarded as a key factor in the sustainability and competitiveness of tourist destinations. This study sought to investigate the organizational cooperation network and the position of different actors and organizations within the management More

  Organizational cooperation is regarded as a key factor in the sustainability and competitiveness of tourist destinations. This study sought to investigate the organizational cooperation network and the position of different actors and organizations within the management of Mashhad tourist destinations, using Social Network Analysis. To this end, the data on the organizational interactions of 30 actors involved were collected through surveying and interviewing three key experts in each relevant organization. The data were then analyzed via Ucinet software, using the in-degree, out-degree, and betweenness centrality indicators. The findings of the study indicated that the governmental organizations such as the provincial governments, gubernatorial offices, and the Law Enforcement Forces mostly exercised control and power on Mashhad tourist destinations’ organizational cooperation network. Moreover, with the highest amount of betweenness centrality, the gubernatorial offices, and the Office of Tourism and Cultural Heritage enjoyed the greatest potentials for cooperation within the organizational cooperation network. Manuscript profile
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  6 - Investigating the Influence of Human Resources Management Activities on Customer Loyalty in the Hoteling Industry Using a Multilevel Approach
  zahra Nikkhah-Farkhani Mohammad shaykhzade
  10.52547/journalitor.36121.11.21.1
  Considering the fact that customer loyalty is regarded as one of the most important concerns of hotel managers, this study sought to investigate the influence of human resources management activities on customer loyalty using a multi-level approach. The statistical popu More

  Considering the fact that customer loyalty is regarded as one of the most important concerns of hotel managers, this study sought to investigate the influence of human resources management activities on customer loyalty using a multi-level approach. The statistical population of the study comprised of managers, staff, and customers of four-star and five-star hotels in Mashhad. Moreover, the statistical sample size of the research at the organization level consisted of thirty-four, one-hundred and forty, two-hundred and forty managers, staff, and customers at organizational, staff, and customer levels, respectively. On the other hand, Sam’s 12-item questionnaire (2008) and the 17-item questionnaire developed by Al-Rafiei et al. (2013) were used to measure the human resources management activities and the staff’s satisfaction and loyalty, respectively, whose validity and reliability was tested using the Content validity method and Cronbach's alpha, respectively. Finally, HLM 7.02 and the SPSS software were used to analyse the collected data. The results proved the positive influence of human resources management activities on the staff’s satisfaction and loyalty, and in turn, on the satisfaction and loyalty of the customers. Therefore, it could be argued that hotel managers can increase the loyalty of their customers by emphasizing human resource management activities and improving their staff’s satisfaction and loyalty, which would increase the profitability of hotels in the long term by reducing marketing costs. Manuscript profile
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  7 - Investigating the Factors Affecting the Demand for Medical Tourism in Mashhad
  Fatemeh Rahmani pejman avazpoor
  10.52547/journalitor.36189.11.21.119
  As one of the largest and most profitable sub-sectors of tourism worldwide, Medical Tourism is considered an economic activity involving service exchanges, representing the link between at least medicine and tourism sectors. Therefore, this study sought to investigate t More

  As one of the largest and most profitable sub-sectors of tourism worldwide, Medical Tourism is considered an economic activity involving service exchanges, representing the link between at least medicine and tourism sectors. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the factors affecting the demands for medical tourism in Mashhad using the Multinomial Logit Model, which was estimated by Stata 16 software. The statistical population of the study comprised of domestic medical tourists who visited Mashhad in 2021, out of whom 150 people were selected as the participants. The dependent variable of the study was the demand for medical tourism in Mashhad, that was divided into low, high, and medium classes, and the required data was collected by administering a questionnaire. Accordingly, it was found that an increase in the quality of medical and urban services, low medical costs, and an increase in the tourists’ income would increase the demand for medical tourism in Mashhad. Moreover, the quality of medical services’ sub-indices and urban factors were also evaluated separately by the tourists who participated in this study. Manuscript profile