An Analysis of Strategic Planning of Religious Shia Ceremonies;With a Focus on Potential Religious Ceremony of Moharram Ceremonyin Taft town

Religion has long been an integral reason for travel; it is also considered as the oldest form of non-financial travel.In fact, religious tourism is a combination of travel and religion. Most writers take religious tourism as a part of cultural tourism. Certainly, both are quite different, but these two are tied together, and religion is part of culture. A religious event that encourages people to travel to another country to visit a religious monument of place. Hence the Muharram ceremonies of Ashoora and Tasooa are religious events that can introcuce the relgious tourism potentials of Iran. The ceremonies of Tasooa and Ashoora are commemorated in different ways in Iran. One of the places where it is held is in the city of Taft located in Yazd province. This research is carried out with the aim of optimizing the commemoration of the Ashoora and Tasooa festivals in order to developtourism in Taft and remove the barriers that ar eon the way of religious tourism through using the SWOT model. This evaluation model (that evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) is considered one of the best strategies in tourism planning. Methods of data collection and analysis of required data is carried out through documents and analytical and survey research. The results indicate that proximity to population centers and urban centersare the best strengths for this city's religious tourism. Short duration of tourists‘ stay in the city and lack of tourist's economic outputs are considered to be some of the major weaknesses.