نشریه مطالعات مدیریت گردشگری
پیاپی 61 (بهار 1402)

Spiritual experience is one of the growing potentials and attractions in many tourist destinations, and involves a wide range of religious and secular tourists. This paper aims to analyze the motives and factors affecting the spiritual experiences of foreign female tourists in Iran. The required data were collected using 383 questionnaires from foreign female tourists in the hotels where they stayed, or at airports on their way to their country. Then the data were analyzed by applying correlation test and multi-linear regression analysis. The results of study show that, being in harmony with the nature is the most important motive for foreign female tourists traveling to Iran. Among the characteristics of tourist destinations, natural geography, history and culture lie as the most important factors affecting the spiritual experiences of the foreign female tourists visiting Iran.

Nowadays, manufacturing and service industries are trying to have a green orientation in their field of activity. However, the concept of greenwashing, which is a kind of mental deception of the audience, is the opposite of green orientation, and the upcoming research aims to examine the components of this concept in the hotel industry and provide solutions to deal with it. The current research has a developmental approach and theme analysis was determined as the method of data analysis. The experts of this research are 15 experts in hospitality and health matters, who were selected by purposeful sampling. Also, the data collection tool is a semi-structured interview. Data analysis shows that environmental greenwashing, social greenwashing, lexical greenwashing, legal greenwashing, and food greenwashing are the dimensions of the concept of greenwashing in the hotel industry. Also, with digital tools and the correct culture we can deal with greenwashing.

In the present study, recreational activities were identified in the Hara protected area, and then these activities were investigated according to a list of spatial indicators. Spatial distribution of recreational activities in the area demonstrated that due to the land and coastal-marine nature of the activities, as well as the topographical and climatic conditions of the area, most of these activities can be implemented in the coastal areas and coastal waters. According to the results, 12 recreational activities from 43 identified activities were selected by tourists, among these activities, "visiting the forest with a balloon" received the highest score, while "Sunbathing on the shore" received the lowest score. Also, among the 14 spatial indicators, "precipitation intensity" and "suitable time for tourism" have been investigated and analyzed in most recreational activities, while other indicators such as "maximum height above sea level" have been analyzed on a limited number.

The development of technology has caused a revolution in the field of tourism and the use of virtual tours is progressing. Therefore, it is necessary to know the level of acceptance of this technology in order to know the destination and desire to visit. The purpose of the research is to investigate the willingness of tourists to visit places in person according to the theory of technology acceptance and familiarity with the destination. The population is people who have used virtual tours at least once. Structural equation test was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the effect of the technology acceptance model (perceptual ease, pleasure and usefulness) has a positive effect on the users' familiarity with the destinations of virtual tour , although the effect of perceptual usefulness is insignificant. Also, familiarity with tourist destinations has a positive and significant effect on the desire to visit them.

Given that religious tourism has become a topic of interest not only among religious followers and pilgrims but also among ordinary tourists, researchers in this field have taken notice. The aim of this study is to examine the global trend of research on religious tourism, as well as the current and future research directions in this area. To this end, a review of existing literature on religious tourism was conducted using bibliometric and visualization methods. After applying input and output criteria, a total of 412 articles were extracted from the Web of Science database and analyzed using VOS viewer software. The findings indicate an upward quantitative trend in publication and citation rates, with the highest number of published papers occurring in 2021 and the highest number of citations in 2022. Additionally, descriptive data revealed the most frequently cited articles, researchers, journals, and universities. Analysis of keyword co-occurrence demonstrated that the most commonly occurring words included religious tourism, pilgrimage, tourism, and spiritual tourism. Findings also indicate that much of the research in this field has focused on conceptualizing and distinguishing between religious and pilgrimage tourism and understanding travelers' motivations in a religious context. Moving forward, future studies in this area should consider experiential marketing and tourist experience, as well as Service-Dominant Logic and value co-creation theories.

Undoubtedly, religious tourism has become a significant area in tourism sector. In contemporary times, tourists visit religious sites not only for spiritual reasons but also in pursuit of cultural and historical significance (Kim et al., 2020; Romanelli et al., 2021). Notably, within religious and pilgrimage tourism, both spiritual and non-spiritual elements coexist, making it arduous to differentiate between the two (Griffin, 2007). While pilgrimage tourism involves performing religious rituals in sacred places with the primary intention of worship, religious tourism does not necessarily require adherence to specific religious beliefs or practices (Kujawa, 2017). In addition to tourism activists, academics have also shown interest in this type of tourism, and many articles, books, and articles have been published related to this topic. In spite of that, to date, no bibliometric investigation has been conducted on religious tourism. Therefore, this research aims to undertake a bibliometric review of religious tourism to ascertain past and future research trends and identify areas requiring further exploration.
 

The present research is characterized as a descriptive-analytical study that utilizes bibliometric analysis to examine a specific research field. The use of bibliometric analysis as a quantitative method in this research is well-established in academic literature and enables scholars to gain valuable insights into various aspects of a research field. The choice of the Web of Science database was made due to its established reputation as a reliable and standardized source for bibliometric analysis. After applying filters and selecting appropriate keywords, a total number of 412 articles were identified and subjected to further analysis. In this regard, the complete bibliometric information of these studies, including their title, abstract, organizational affiliation, and sources, were extracted from the database and subsequently analyzed using VOS Viewer software. This methodology aims to identify the structures and trends within the specified research topic, thereby enhancing our understanding of the subject matter.

The results of the investigation indicate an upward trend in the quantitative publication and citation rates of religious tourism research. The year 2021 had the highest number of publications, with 52 studies, while the peak for citations was observed in 2022, with 967 citations. Moreover, the most highly cited article, author, journal, country, and university were identified. Accordingly, "Forms of Religious Tourism" recognized as the most cited article, "Rinschede, G" recognized as the most cited author, "Annals of Tourism Research" recognized as the most cited journal, "Australia" recognized as the most cited country and "University of Haifa" recognized as the most cited university in this field. After conducting a co-authorship analysis, the study was able to identify eight clusters of active countries that have contributed significantly to knowledge production in the field of religious tourism research. This analysis provides valuable insights into the collaborative networks and patterns of international cooperation among researchers working on religious tourism. Furthermore, the keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed that "Pilgrimage," "Tourism," and "Spiritual tourism" were the most commonly used terms in religious tourism research.

The increase in the number of articles and citations pertaining to religious tourism signifies its growing importance as an academic field and highlights the attention it has garnered from researchers. Among the topics that have recently received attention in this field, the experience of religious tourists and pilgrims is one such area that is still in its nascent stages, as corroborated by the Keywords Co-occurrence analysis. Previous studies have primarily focused on the trip experience, whereas a comprehensive understanding of the tourist's experience necessitates an examination of all three phases, namely before, during, and after the trip. This highlights the dynamic nature of the tourist experience. By comparing developments in tourism research with those in religious tourism, research gaps can be identified. Experiential marketing and Service-dominant logic-related theories are areas that require further exploration in religious tourism, as they have yet to receive much attention in this field.

In the era of digital transformation, Big Data have assumed a crucial role in changing the global travel and providing significant challenges and opportunities for established companies, as well as new entrants into the tourism industry. this study sought to fill the knowledge gap of linkage the relationships between big data and marketing strategy with comprehensive viewpoints across different research fields in tourism and hospitality literatures. This study aims to identify and present a comprehensive model of data driven marketing in smart tourism. This study is conducted by Meta-synthesis approach. After performing CASP analysis, eventually,47 papers are investigated. we identified and prioritized the consequences, challenges, prerequisites and Dimensions of data driven marketing in smart tourism. After investigating the articles, we identified and prioritized the consequences of BD in 7 major Category including: 1-process 2-people 3-product 4-physical evidence 5-promotion 6-place 7-price.

The aim of the research is to measure the impact of the variables affecting the change of attitude in the decision to travel using virtual reality. This research is quantitative research, and in terms of purpose, it is applied, and in terms of data collection, it is a descriptive-survey of correlation type. The statistical population of this research is the users of the tourism channel. According to the Cochran relation, the sample size was 270 people, who answered the questions by distributing the questionnaire online in the statistical community. First, the collected data were analyzed and in the next step, the variables were ranked using the process of fuzzy hierarchy analysis. The research findings indicate that the criteria of flexibility, usefulness, perceived pleasure, a positive and significant relationship with changing attitudes has it.