Explaining a conceptual model of a tourist-friendly city with an emphasis on the spatial elements of Mashhad

The main perspective of this research is to investigate the existing potential of Mashhad to become tourist-friendly and the capabilities of Mashhad to become a tourist-friendly city as a new topic. For this purpose, efforts are being made to systematically compile the indicators of the tourist-friendly city according to the existing cultural and pilgrimage potentials of Mashhad. Behavioral patterns of tourists are analyzed in the form of statistical and spatial databases. The results showed that in all 19 field sampling points, on average, about 65% of tourists' responses to the directional questions raised (with the topic of the tourist-friendly city) were negative. Among the studied parameters, the parameters related to the spatial components have not been satisfied and approved by the tourists. The parameters studied in the research were analyzed and weighted by the hierarchical analysis process of AHP and used to overlap the layers of spatial maps and the final zoning in GIS. The results of our study showed that the highest satisfaction of tourists was recorded in the central area of Mashhad and around the shrine, which shows the characteristics of religious tourism in Mashhad. Considering the facilities and limitations of Mashhad city from the perspective of the research topic, the appropriate strategies for production and formulation, and the obtained results showed that the policy of strengthening and expanding service and welfare uses is important and preferable and a higher priority for the realization of the research topic in Mashhad city.