The Study of the Role of Religious Tourism in the Quality of Life of a Host Society (A Case Study: Salehabad City of Ilam, Iran)

Abstract

Today, religious tourism development has occupied a special place in the economic, cultural, social and political fields and its role in sustainable development of regions cannot be ignored.  The development of this industry in developed and developing countries has caused different social, economic and environmental changes and reforms in the host societies in recent decades. This study has been conducted aiming to investigate the role of religious tourism in the quality of life of the host society in Salehabad City of Ilam through a descriptive-analytic method. The study population includes 1707 citizens of Salehabad City, 314 of whom have been studied as the sample through Cochran formula. The statistical data of the study has been collected through a questionnaire made by the researcher whose reliability has been confirmed by a number of professors and experts in the field of tourism. Also, its reliability has been confirmed to be 0.78 using Cronbach's alpha. The process of statistical calculations in this study has been performed based on Ordinal regression analysis. For this purpose, the effectiveness of three economic, physical, (facilities and infrastructure) and socio-cultural indicators of religious tourism development in Salehabad City has been tested. The results suggest that religious tourism makes an impact on environmental development, infrastructure, socio-cultural, and economic indicators, respectively.