A New Look at the Arba�een Mega-eventfrom the Perspective of Iraqis as the Host Community

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Neda Zarandian¹  Ali Asghar Shalbafian² 

[1] Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran;University of Semnan, Semnan, Iran;

关键词: arba�een;    host community;    pilgrimage;    tourism;    impacts;   

DOI  :  10.21427/ZF6T-3F61

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The present study explores the impacts of the Arba�een event from the perspective of the inhabitants in the host community, Iraq, as the key stakeholders. Arba�een procession is one of the forms of pilgrimage that has expanded significantly in recent years and has a special place among Muslims. Due to the huge number of pilgrims, this phenomenon can be considered as a mega-event with different effects. One of the best judges of these effects is the host community. To evaluate the judgements, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 Iraqis selected via convenience snowball sampling. The data collected from the interview transcripts were analysed using the content analysis method and MAXQDA10 software. The results indicated that the event has had economic, environmental, socio-cultural and political impacts on the host country as well as certain effects on pilgrims, each subcategorised into a set of subthemes. Based on the identified effects, some suggestions are made as guidelines for policymakers and planners of the Arba�een procession to better organise this mega-event.

【 授权许可】

Unknown