An Investigation of Developing Religious Tourism (A Case Study: Nurabad Mamasani Town)

Nowadays, great attention has been directed toward tourism activities due to outstanding effects of tourism activities on the economy of areas. Nurabad Mamasani town, however, is unknown in spite of its several tourism potentials and capabilities. Thus, recognizing tourist attractions, and programming in accordance with social and cultural condition of this town seem necessary. The goal of this article is to "investigate the development of religious tourism". The methodology includes analytical, descriptive and survey ones. The statistical population, here, contains all tourists visiting religious sites of Nurabad Mamasani town. In 2007, their number was estimated at 40000 individuals based on the information distributed by Tourism and Cultural Heritage Organization. 380 individuals were chosen as sample size in 2008 and the study was carried out through filling out questionnaires. ArcGIS software was utilized to show the spatial distribution of Nurabad Mamasani religious sites. Among the techniques used in this article, Spearman and Kendall correlation can be mentioned.The findings show that paying attention to the importance of tourism industry in our present world, the role of the religious sites in attracting tourists and its effects on developing different areas, Nurabad Mamasani in Fars Province, which includes several holy religious sites, can finally turn into appropriate environment for attracting religious tourists and removing some parts of Nurabad Mamasani problems, if managerial viewpoint toward this area and correct programming lead to reorganizing these holy religious sites and their surrounding environments.