This  study aims to examine three dimensions of development, namely, economic, environment, and social-cultural issues caused by religious tourism in Mashhad. A quantitative method used to investigate 288 residents’ perceptions who are settled around the Imam Reza holly shrine. Mean and standard division of the variable is calculated to understated to what extend respondents are agreed about positive impacts of religious tourism in terms of economic, environment, and social-cultural development. ANOVA performed  to compare mean scores of economic, environment, and social-cultural dimensions by educational level, income level, and residency lengths. The results show that  from perspective of residents, development of religious tourism provides economic contribution  in Mashhad. In contrast, negative effects of religious tourism are reported by respondents. According to the findings of the study, there is a census about improvement 

of social-cultural issues caused by religious tourism in Mashahd.  According to the ANOVA results, respondents with different educational level have significant different perception about economic impacts. Similarly, perception of respondents about economic, environment, and social-cultural effect of religious tourism varies based on income level and lengths of residency. 

Keywords: Economic, environment, social-cultural, religious tourism 

ABSTRACT   iii 

ÖZ     iv 

DEDICATION v 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT     vi 

LIST OF FIGURES   x 

11 introduction   -  1 

12 Significance of the topic/problem statement   -  2 

13 The purpose of study     4 

21 Tourism development   -  5 

22 Definitions of tourism and tourism development    7 

23 Tourism Trends and Theories   9 

24 Tourism types and forms    11 

25 Tourism and urban planning   16 

26 Different perspectives of tourism development and growth    18 

27 Tourism, conflict and public interest   -  29 

28 Resident’s attitude and tourism planning and development  30 

29 Tourism and sustainability concept    34 

31 Iran   35 

32 Tourism in Iran    38 

33 Mashhad as the case of study    44 

34 Mashhad’s economy and policies -  47 

35 Demography of Mashhad    48 

36 Religious tourism in Mashhad   48 

41 Sample and procedure     51 

42 Data analysis   52 

51 Results of reliability analysis  53 

Factor analysis     53 

52 Effect of Religious Tourism    55 

53 Educational level     57 

54 Income level    58 

55 Residency lengths   -  62 

61 Main findings -  66 

62 Managerial implication   69 

63 Limitation and research direction     70 

Table 1: Result of Cronbach Alpha     52 

Table 2: Results of factor analysis    53 

Table 3: Average perspective of resident attitude about development dimensions  55 

Table 4: Compare mean of residents’ perception with different educational level    56 

Table 5: Compare mean of residents’ perception with different income level -  58 

Table 6: Compare mean of residents’ perception with different period of residency   -  61 

Figure 1: Economic impacts of religious according to educational level     57 

Figure 2: Economic impacts of religious according to educational to income level    59 

Figure 3: Environment impact of religious tourism according to income level    60 

Figure 4: Social-cultural impact of tourism according to income level     60 

Figure 5: Economic impact of tourism based on lenghs of residency   -  62 

Figure 6: Environmental impact of tourism based on lenghts of residency     63 

Figure 7: Social-cultural impact of tourism based on time of residency    63 

Figure 8: Trend of tourism development based on Butlers life cycle model  67