The Effect of Media on the Tendency to Religious Tourism: The Holy Shrine of Hazrat Ahmad ibn Musa (AS) in Shiraz as a Case Study

Nowadays, as one of the social organizations, media must transmit the sociocultural heritage and values of societies. Since one of the most important factors and motives of travelling is religious beliefs and feelings and since the discussion of the link between tourism and media, as one of the most important and essential issues of the present age, is closely related to the social, economic, and cultural development of societies, it is essential to study media and religious tourism. Based on surveys, this study aims to investigate the impact of media use on the tendency to religious tourism. Data was completed through the questionnaires filled in by 400 tourists who were present in the holy shrine at the time of the data collection. The results present a relationship between access to modern information and communication technologies and the tendency to religious tourism (sig: 0.000) as well as the extent of the use of mass media and the tendency to religious tourism The results also reveal that the share of new information and communication technologies in tendencies to religious tourism is more than that of the mass media.