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This paper aims to find out how tourists in Tehran experience its public areas and pursue two main purposes. The first is to understand the characteristics of the public sphere in Tehran and the second is to discover a way in which the public sphere can play a role in facilitating urban tourism in Tehran.

The methodology used in this study is qualitative and phenomenological. In-depth interviews with 26 participants were used to collect data. The interviews were then transcribed, and Maxqda software was used to analyze them.

The findings show that the public sphere is a useful tool to discover and explain how to talk and act in different places in Tehran. This sphere is evolving over time, from access to dialogue and finally to action. Although it is not possible to draw a clear line between the different levels of the public sphere, it seems that tourists in Tehran have now entered the literary public sphere. Although they have made efforts, they have not been able to reach the political public sphere and public action. The most important obstacles are the government and the citizens of Tehran.

This paper is unique about the connection between the public sphere and urban tourism. The public sphere is a manifestation of the principles of reciprocity and critical debate in the city and a space for understanding through public debate. The public sphere is also a space for equality, rationality and mutual understanding between individuals and reasoning based on speech exchange. Roles that, if given to tourists, could change tourism policy in Iran.

Spiritual tourism is a niche tourism studied under cultural tourism. Religious events play an important role in attracting spiritual tourists. This paper aims to highlight the introduction of Yazd city (Iran) as a new spiritual tourism destination with emphasis on Shiite religious events and rituals. This research has the following three major purposes to assess the motivation of international tourists for participating in spiritual tours, examine the attitude of tourists towards spiritual tourism activities and investigate the effect on international tourists’ perceptions and views of spiritual tours organized in the Muharram and Ashura events.

This study was conducted in Yazd, Iran. Data for this study were collected through a questionnaire which was distributed in organized spiritual tours during the Muharram and Ashura events. A quantitative method was used and the data were analyzed using SPSS tools.

On the basis of the results of this study, it can be concluded that international tourists are interested in spiritual tourism activities and attractions in Yazd city, and spiritual tours can be a strategy against Islamophobia.

This research paper investigated the attitude of tourists to spiritual tourism activities and the effect on international tourists’ perceptions and views of spiritual tours organized in the Muharram and Ashura as the most important events in Shiite culture.