Considering today's competitive world and need of cities for introduction and survival in the competitive arena, it is inevitable to regard cities as a product. One of the ways to be introduced into the world's competitive market is through presenting the face of the city, which should be able to attract the audience. It seems that the first factor that is very important in this regard, especially from the viewpoint of tourists, is the dimension of city image and its related factors. City of Mashhad is among the urban tourist destinations in Iran for pilgrimage and religious tourism. This city has its own peculiarities which are caused by the position of this city as the first destination for domestic tourist trips and the spiritual capital city of the country. In this study, using analytical-applied method, the effective factors for the formation of the city image from the viewpoint of pilgrims/tourists is assessed and their current status is studied. The quantitative data of the current research that include the views of 385 tourists gathered using questionnaire are evaluated by normal test, one-sample and paired t-test, and radar charts in SPSS and Smart PLS software. The results demonstrate that, among 5 investigated factors (culture-history, architecture and urban planning, transportation and communications, range of services, and environment), the factor of architecture and urban planning is the most effective one for the formation of Mashhad city’s image. Also, a significant difference is observed between the current and favorable status of the above factors.

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