A Formal and Contentual Review of Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism Studies in Iran (2003-2021)

Having a long-standing tradition in the Iranian and Shiite communities, pilgrimage and religious travels have considerably increased throughout the last two decades with a boom in tourism. In this regard, many studies have been carried out on different aspects of pilgrimage, addressing both managerial aspects of the pilgrimage destinations and the experiences reported by the pilgrims. However, while several review articles have already been published in English-language journals on pilgrimage studies, no such article could be found in the Iranian -Persian academic journals concerning pilgrimage and religious trips made in Iran. Therefore, this article sought to examine the formal and contentual features of the Persian scientific-research papers on pilgrimage and religious tourism published in Iranian Journals, trying to identify the research gaps in this regard. To this end, the relevant articles published from 2003 to 2021 in Iranian journals accredited by Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology using a systematic review and content analysis method. Then, the features of the collected papers were examined in terms of spatial distribution, frequency, geographical distribution, authors’ characteristics (gender, frequency, and field of study), and methodology (research method, data sources, data collection tools, observation unit, sampling method, and statistical tests). Finally, the papers were categorized in terms of their relationship with the Parsons’ social systems, introducing the over-researched and under-researched areas and the research gaps in the Iranian pilgrimage and religious tourism studies so that new ideas and research topics be offered for novel studies and the development of knowledge in this regard.