The Social Development of Pilgrimage in Mashhad: Challenges, Solutions and A Strategic Plan

Pilgrimage tourism leaves vital social consequences on both pilgrims and the host society. Mashhad, as the second religious hob in Islamic world hosting more than ten million pilgrims per year, needs informed planning especially
in the social domain. This paper presents some findings of a survey on societal aspects of pilgrimage and pilgrims' social security in Mashhad in order to suggesting a strategic plan. In the paper, we have Firstly outlined the
conceptual framework used in the research and then, the strength, weakness, opportunities, and threatens of the social field of pilgrimage is identified utilizing the data gathered through interviews with a sample of pilgrims and
key stakeholders. Finally, the vision, mission, objective and corresponding strategies of religious tourism in Mashhad are suggested. The findings indicate that if the vision is to be realized we should pay more attention to
increasing the pilgrims physical and mental security, improving the pilgrimage culture in pilgrims and hospitality in the host society, providing pilgrims with the necessary travel information, changing travel pattern and
distributing pilgrimage journeys over the year, improving social capital, monitoring system improvement, standardization of service providers behavior and judicial and security organizations cooperation.