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CROWODING in MINA BASED on PILGRIMS' PERCEPTION of SAFETY and COMFORT in HAJJ ALSOLAMI, BADR MOHAMMED A. a Thesis Submitted I

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CROWODING in MINA BASED on PILGRIMS' PERCEPTION of SAFETY and COMFORT in HAJJ ALSOLAMI, BADR MOHAMMED A. a Thesis Submitted I CROWODING IN MINA BASED ON PILGRIMS’ PERCEPTION OF SAFETY AND COMFORT IN HAJJ ALSOLAMI, BADR MOHAMMED A. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying Universiti Teknologi Malaysia March 2019 In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful, Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Universe, and Peace and Prayers be upon His Final Prophet and Messenger. To the pilgrims and visitors of Makkah. To my Family. This thesis is dedicated to them. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Praise is to Allah, the Lord of the world. My profound gratitude is to Almighty Allah first, by Whose will and the power this thesis came into being. I wish to express my deepest appreciation to all those who helped me, in one way or another, to complete this thesis. Special thanks to my thesis supervisor, Associate Prof. Dr. Mohamed Rashid bin Embi for his guidance and support during the research journey. Also, to the faculty of built environment staff, both academic and administrative for their kind support. Special appreciation also goes to my family. I appreciate your patience and understanding throughout this PhD journey. My gratitude to The government of Saudi Arabia, Umm Al-Qura University, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute for Hajj and Umrah Research and GIS Technology Innovation Centre for encouragements, financial and logistic supports. iv ABSTRACT Crowding perception has been studied in various settings to alleviate the effect of the crowded conditions on participants’ well-being. These include festivals, outdoor recreation, tourism and retail settings. However, very few researches have addressed the crowding perception in religious settings that include a large number of populations such as during the Hajj. More than two million pilgrims perform their Hajj every year. The Hajj process involves staying at the holy site of Mina from four to five days. In Mina, the pilgrims require a peaceful atmosphere to perform their Hajj rituals. A large number of pilgrims and Mina’s spatial constraints led to crowded conditions that affected the pilgrims’ peaceful atmosphere and created serious safety and comfort concerns. It appears that little research consideration has been given to alleviate the impact of the crowded conditions on the pilgrims. Therefore, the research aim is to establish parameters that affect pilgrims’ levels of crowding perception toward enhancing their perception of safety and comfort in Mina during the Hajj. Accordingly, a systematic literature review was employed to develop a conceptual framework that considers the possible influential factors that might affect the pilgrims’ and the effect of their perceived crowding on perceived levels of safety and comfort in Mina. Then, this research used a quantitative research design and data were randomly collected from 1243 pilgrims of seven pilgrim groups representing seven Hajj establishments. The data were analysed using the SPSS and AMOS software. The findings revealed that for all pilgrims, one socio- demographic factor (education), one personal factor (expectation), two social factors (provision of information and activities) and three physical factors (routing strategies, disorientation causes and coding and signage) are observed to have significant impact on the pilgrims’ crowding perception, which significantly affects their levels of perceived safety and comfort in Mina. The findings also indicated that the impact of influential factors on the pilgrims’ crowding perception varies according to their pilgrims’ group. Based on the findings, this research recommended eight parameters that affect the pilgrims’ levels of crowding perception to enhance their levels of perceived safety and comfort in Mina. Furthermore, this thesis suggested some theoretical and practical implications as well as important avenues for future research. v ABSTRAK Persepsi kesesakan telah pun dikaji dalam pelbagai persekitran untuk meredakan kesan keadaan kesesakan terhadap kesejahteraan peserta. Persekitaran ini termasuk waktu perayaan, rekreasi luaran, pelancongan dan persekitaran perniagaan. Walau bagaimanapun, hanya sedikit penyelidikan yang membincangkan persepsi kesesakan dalam persekitaran keagamaan yang melibatkan sejumlah besar populasi seperti waktu melaksanakan haji. Lebih dari dua juta jemaah haji melaksanakan haji mereka setiap tahun. Proses haji melibatkan Jemaah, di Mina selama empat atau lima hari. Di Mina, jemaah haji memerlukan suasana aman untuk melaksanakan ibadah haji mereka. Jumlah jemaah haji yang besar dan kekangan ruang di Mina menyebabkan keadaan penuh sesak. Ini memberi kesan kepada suasana damai para jemaah serta mewujudkan kebimbangan yang sreius terhadap keselamatan dan keselesaan jemaah yang serius. Ternyata hanya sedikit sahaja usaha penyelidikan yang telah diberikan untuk mengurangkan kesan kesesakan pada jemaah haji. Oleh itu, penyelidikan ini bertujuan untuk membina parameter yang mempengaruhi tahap persepsi kesesakan para jemaah yang boleh meningkatkan tahap persepsi mereka terhadap keselamatan dan keselesaan di Mina semasa haji. Justeru, kajian literatur yang sistematik digunakan untuk membina rangka kerja konseptual bagi mempertimbangkan faktor berpengaruh yang berkemungkinan boleh menjejaskan jemaah haji dan kesan kesesakan yang mereka anggap boleh menentukan tahap keselamatan serta keselesaan di Mina. Selanjutnya, kajian ini menggunakan reka bentuk penyelidikan kuantitatif dan data secara rawak dikumpulkan daripada seramai 1243 jemaah dari tujuh kumpulan jemaah haji yang mewakili tujuh pertubuhan haji. Data telah dianalisis menggunakan perisian SPSS dan AMOS. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa bagi semua jemaah terdapat satu faktor sosio-demografi (pendidikan), satu faktor peribadi (harapan), dua faktor sosial (penyediaan maklumat dan aktiviti) dan tiga faktor fizikal (strategi penghalaan, penyebab disorientasi dan pengekodan dan papan tanda) yang diperhatikan mempunyai impak yang signifikan terhadap persepsi kesesakan jemaah haji, yang memberi kesan ketara terhadap tahap keselamatan dan keselesaan mereka di Mina. Penemuan juga menunjukkan bahawa kesan faktor berpengaruh terhadap persepsi kesesakan jemaah berbeza mengikut kumpulan jemaah mereka. Berdasarkan penemuan ini, penyelidikan ini mencadangkan lapan parameter yang mempengaruhi tahap persepsi kesesakan untuk meningkatkan tahap keselamatan dan keselesaan mereka di Mina. Seterusnya, tesis ini mencadangkan beberapa implikasi teoretikal dan praktikal serta cadangan penting untuk penyelidikan masa depan. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE DECLARATION ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv ABSTRACT v ABSTRAK vi TABLE OF CONTENTS vii LIST OF TABLES xv LIST OF FIGURES xxii LIST OF APPENDICES xxviii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Research Background 1 1.2 Problem Statement 3 1.3 Research Gap 6 1.4 Research Aim 8 1.5 Research Objectives 8 1.6 Research Questions 8 1.7 Research Methodology 9 1.8 Scope of the Study 10 1.9 Significant of the Study 11 1.10 Structure of the Thesis 12 CHAPTER 2 AN OVERVIEW OF THE HAJJ 15 2.1 Introduction 15 2.2 The Islamic Pilgrimage: the Hajj 15 2.2.1 Significance of the Hajj 16 2.2.2 Socio-Cultural Impact of the Hajj 18 2.2.3 Economic Impact of the Hajj 21 2.2.4 The Hajj Management 24 2.2.5 Steps of the Hajj 28 vii 2.3 Study Site: Mina 30 2.3.1 Spatial Characteristics of Mina 31 2.3.2 Pilgrims Population in Mina 35 2.3.3 Crowding Accidents in Mina 36 2.4 Summary 39 CHAPTER 3 THE CROWDING PERCEPTION 41 3.1 Introduction 41 3.2 The Crowding Phenomena 41 3.2.1 Distinction between Density and Crowding 43 3.3 Crowding Perception 44 3.3.1 Perceived Crowding Definitions 45 3.3.2 Perceived Crowding Measurements 46 3.3.3 Dimensions of Perceived Crowding 47 3.3.3.1 Perceived Human Crowding 48 3.3.3.2 Perceived Spatial Crowding 50 3.4 Factors influencing Crowding Perception 52 3.4.1 Socio-Demographic Factors 53 3.4.1.1 Gender 53 3.4.1.2 Age 55 3.4.1.3 Living place 56 3.4.1.4 Education 56 3.4.1.5 Experience 57 3.4.1.6 Marital status 59 3.4.1.7 Length of Stay 59 3.4.1.8 Entry Mode 60 3.4.2 Personal Factors 61 3.4.2.1 Expectations 62 3.4.2.2 Control 65 3.4.2.3 Sociability 71 3.4.2.4 Mood 76 3.4.3 Social Factors 80 viii 3.4.3.1 Interpersonal Similarity 81 3.4.3.2 Provision of Information 85 3.4.3.3 Activities 88 3.4.4 Physical Factors 92 3.4.4.1 Orientation strategies 94 3.4.4.2 Route strategies 97 3.4.4.3 Spatial anxiety 100 3.4.4.4 Disorientation causes 103 3.4.4.5 Coding and signage 106 3.5 Impacts of Perceived Crowding 109 3.5.1 Impact of Perceived Crowding on Perceived Safety 116 3.5.2 Impact of perceived crowding on perceived comfort 117 3.6 Summary 118 CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY 121 4.1 Introduction 121 4.2 Research Paradigm 122 4.3 Research Design 125 4.4 Sampling Design and Procedure 131 4.4.1 Pilgrims’ Population 131 4.4.2 Sample Size 133 4.4.3 Sampling Strategy 136 4.5 Research Instrument 138 4.6 Measurement Scale 140 4.6.1 Characteristics of the Pilgrims 140 4.6.2 Personal Factors 142 4.6.3 Social Factors 143 4.6.4 Physical Factors 144 4.6.5 Crowding Perception 146 4.6.6 Perceived Safety and Comfort 147 ix 4.7 Validity of the Instrument 148 4.7.1 Pre-test 149 4.7.2 Pilot Study 150 4.8 Data collection 152 4.8.1 Logistics 152 4.8.2 Team 153 4.8.3 Materials 155 4.8.4 Planning Data Collection 156 4.8.5 The Field Survey 157 4.9 Data Screening 159 4.9.1 Case Screening 159 4.9.2 Variable Screening 161 4.10 Measurements Validity and Reliability 165 4.11 Factor Analysis 167 4.11.1 Exploratory Factor Analysis 167 4.12 Structure Equation
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