Analyzing the role of religious tourism in sustainable urban development (Case study: Samarra city)

Abstract:

Today, religious tourism is one of the most profitable types of tourism that has significant impacts on the economy and development of cities in various dimensions. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study is to analyze the role of religious tourism in the sustainable urban development of Samarra. This study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method. Theoretical information was collected through library and survey studies. The statistical population of the study is the population of Samarra city of 348,700 people, of which 400 people were selected as the sample size. The sampling method is simple random sampling. The data of this study were analyzed at the level of descriptive and inferential statistics, so that the impact of religious tourism on various dimensions of the sustainable development of Samarra city from the perspective of residents was analyzed using statistical tests, including one-sample. The t-test was in accordance with the level of data measurement and hypotheses. The findings of this study showed that religious tourism in Samarra city is below average in all economic, socio-cultural, physical and environmental dimensions with averages of 2.67, 2.80, 2.73 and 2.55 respectively. Therefore, it can be concluded that religious tourism in Samarra city, under the influence of demographic and ethnic context and cultural and religious conflicts, has not had a desirable impact on the sustainability of Samarra city in various dimensions.