Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Optimising Crowd Management Strategies for Mass Gatherings: The Case of the Hajj Pilgrimage(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alshammari, Falah; Bang, HenryThis study takes a critical look at crowd management strategies utilised during the Hajj pilgrimage: one of the most complex mass gatherings in the world. It identifies key gaps in the protection of crowds and offers recommendations on emergency preparedness, risk management, crowd governance, and the interrelationships between crowd behaviour, technology, and institutional frameworks. Under an exploratory case study design, the study uses an entirely qualitative approach. It draws on secondary data from academic writings and reports by governments and NGOs, standards of international agencies, and technical documents for the period between 2015 and 2024. The data were analysed thematically under ten key areas relating to crowd management theory, practice, and policy. The findings reveal that the culture of crowd behaviour in Hajj is dependent on religious identity, ritual obligation, and cultural patterns-making factors that have often been disregarded by traditional crowd control models. There are ethical concerns in applying AI and surveillance systems, which also find scant usage due to poor infrastructural synergy in the decision-making process. The policy framework reveals weak coordination among agencies, with emergency preparedness planning rarely affording any flexibility or cultural relevance. Such findings reveal the persistent chasm between theory and practice. Despite reforms and technological advancements, challenges in coordinating, adjusting, and culturally sensitive governance for collective safety remain. This study then contributes from the culture side by calling for a holistic, integrated, and flexible approach that holistically addresses infrastructure, governance, technology, and ethics towards safer crowds during Hajj and the like.27 0Item Restricted Evaluating Emergency Evacuation Procedures during Hajj Pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia(Coventry University, 2025) Alanezi, Khalid; Parkinson, EmmaHajj is one of the largest mass gatherings globally held annually. It invites over two million pilgrims from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. An effective crowd safety and evacuation design is deemed relevant and should align with the logistical and behavioral challenges unique to the ritual sites. This professional paper looks at emergency evacuation procedures adopted during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. The research aimed to evaluate the current evacuation protocols, identify limitations, and suggest actionable strategies to prove safety at the pilgrim events. The study a post-positivist philosophical lens and employed a systematic literature review under the PRISMA framework. 27 scholarly sources were identified and analysed thematically. The findings show that Saudi authorities have implemented major structural and technological advances. However, the findings identify critical vulnerabilities persistent in the case of Hajj. Limitations emerging from the review are behavioral noncompliance, communication barriers and command structures that are over-centralized. The effectiveness of evacuation is also limited by technology over dependent systems. Cross-thematic analysis revealed the need for integrated, adaptive systems to take into account technical and human factors. The study serves a basis for theory development and practice improvement where emergency evacuation is framed as a socio-technical challenge that needs planning informed by behaviours as well as multilingual communication and localized decision-making authority.22 0Item Restricted Hajj Experience: An In-Depth Exploration of Spiritual Pilgrimage, Cultural Immersion, and Religious Tourism(Middlesex University, 2024) Alsharif, Hassan Saeed; Terzidou, MatinaAbstract The Hajj pilgrimage is often recognized as the most important spiritual journey in the Islamic religion and brings millions of pilgrims annually to the holy places in Saudi Arabia. People worldwide participate in this ancient ritual that not only serves as a religious duty but also a unique approach to embracing heritage and experiencing selftransformation. Notwithstanding the great value and significance of the Hajj experience, there is however a perceptible void in the analysis and comprehension of the complex nature of Hajj tourism―especially as it relates to spiritual pilgrimage and cultural interaction. The purpose of this research is to bridge this gap by looking into deeper layers of the Hajj experience unveiling its spiritual meaning and broad cultural interactions. Through investigation into spirituality, tourism, and cultural immersion, this empirical analysis strives to provide a holistic view of the Hajj pilgrimage beyond its religious dimension solely. This research uses the pillars of religious studies, tourism, culture, and cultural anthropology in the study of the Hajj pilgrimage. The theories that are going to be extracted from the above-discussed religious studies concerning ritual and spirituality will also be employed on the pilgrims. Tourism research will be conducted at the tourist motivation level, destination level, and the level of impact of religious tourism. In cultural anthropology, the result will cover cultural correlation rooted in theories of acclimatization, intercultural interaction, and identification. The incorporation of these certain views is presumed to generate a comprehensive understanding of the Hajj basically about religious tourism, cultural exchange, and religious travel. The rationale for this study is rooted in the increasing global interest in religious tourism and the growing significance of Saudi Arabia as a hub for pilgrimage. With the Hajj pilgrimage attracting diverse individuals from around the world, there is a pressing need to examine how this unique form of tourism shapes perceptions, fosters intercultural exchange, and contributes to spiritual fulfillment. Also, the various stakeholders in the use of tourism, pilgrimage, and culture preservation need to know the Hajj dynamics to come up with strategies that will promote pilgrims’ experience and sustainable tourism practices. In light of these considerations, this research endeavors to offer a nuanced understanding of the Hajj experience, contributing to the scholarly discourse on religious tourism, cultural exchange, and spiritual pilgrimage.23 0