Mega Event of Arba’een, a Manifestation of Religious Tourism

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Faculty member of NAZAR center, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Religious tourism can be regarded as a type of tourism that lies between pilgrimage, on the one hand, and tourism, on the other. With regard to Arba’een ceremony, one could say that such a collective action can be considered as a pilgrimage besides being a type of religious tourism; because it is the incentives and behaviors of the travelers that determine if their journey is pilgrimage or religious tourism. There are some individulas among the participants of Arba’een event whose motives and behaviors are like those of a pilgrim or a religious tourist. In this research, through studying the Arba’een event, it was made clear that the life threatening dangers and lack of infrastructure and facilities, have not weaken the pacifist Arba’een walk. Despite being an Islamic action, this event has been developed to other religions too.
 

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