Important factors in choosing urban shopping centers by tourists and pilgrims: A Case Study Mashhad

Shopping is one of the things that has always been of interest to tourists and pilgrims and malls and shopping centers varied tourists and pilgrims from around the world that illustrate the importance of this issue. Mashhad, the second largest religious metropolis in the world, annually receives more than 25 million pilgrims and tourists from around the world, is a market and various shopping centers that can meet the needs of tourists and pilgrims. In this study, the factors affecting the choice of shopping centers by tourists and pilgrims in Mashhad were studied and analyzed. For this purpose, 396 questionnaires were collected using multinomial logit to estimate these factors were discussed. Shopping in Mashhad them into three groups based on their geographic location. The first group more frequently than other groups, including: Markets around the holly shrine, Reza market, central market, Ferdowsi market and 17 Shahrivar that Geographical position is around the shrine. The second group includes Janet, Zist khavar, Proma, Alton, and the third group includes Almas shargh, Kian center, Padidieh hypermarket and Torghabeh bazar. The results showed that the variables of income, education and transport index (below average) have a significant positive impact on the tourists in the second group than the first group and variables of survival, province, family members, transportation (personal means) and transportation (less than average) have positive and significant impact and variables of job, cost effectiveness (more than average) and infrastructure (below average) have a significant negative impact on the tourists in the third group compared with the first group.