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Commodification Of Islamic Religious Tourism: From Spiritual To Touristic Experience, Jahanzeeb Qurashi

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the government and the local population of Mecca who used to facilitate pilgrims as ‘Guests of Allah’ free of charge have adopted the concept of ‘pay to pray’ (Shackley, 2001 & Woodward, 2004). In other words, given the escalating demand for religious tourism and the desire to achieve maximum economic benefits, the Saudi government is enhancing the hospitality, tourism and telecom sectors in general and transforming Mecca’s tourism infrastructure, in particular, developing it into a contemporary city / tourist destination by injecting US$80 billion into the local economy (Pecenoni et al., 2012). It …