Exploring the essence of Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah: leveraging the portraits approach to understand the second-holiest city in Islam

Purpose This research explores the essence of the second-holiest city in Islam, Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, by providing a comprehensive mapping of all associations and evocations extracted from its residents’ minds. This paper aims to offer the most advanced and detailed description of the city, grounded in its residents’ perceptions. Design/methodology/approach This study relies on a mixed-methods approach. First, using the qualitative projective technique called the portraits method, it extracts the evocations from 46 residents of Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah, and provides a classification of all evocations through a two-step content analysis used for developing a faithful description of the city. Then, a quantitative study with 102 residents evaluates the alignment of the description with residents’ perceptions to empirically ensure the description captures the essence of the city. Findings The results present the different evocations classified through nine categories and three levels of importance, with each category providing the core, intermediate and peripheral evocations, offering the most advanced and detailed description of Al-Madinah Al-Munawwarah. The result from the second study validates the level of precise alignment between the description and residents’ perception of the city. Originality/value Located in Saudi Arabia, this distinct destination attracts millions of tourists and pilgrims each year for its cultural and religious heritage sites. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first research to date that provides such a rich and deep understanding of the second-holiest city in Islam. By relying on the portraits method, this research offers a unique, grounded and faithful narrative of one of the most visited cities worldwide, contributing significantly to the literature on place branding, particularly in the context of spiritual and religious destinations.