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Pilgrimage Sites As Magnets Of Interfaith Tolerance: The Case Of Kemaliq Lingsar In Indonesia, Suhadah Suhadah, Deddy Mulyana, Pawit M. Yusup, Nuryah A. Sjafirah

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study aims to reveal the practices of tolerance between the adherents of Islam and Hinduism when they were engaged in worship at Kemaliq Lingsar, a sacred religious site which is used as a pilgrimage site where both parties pray and perform religious tourism and rituals. Drawing on the interpretive approach, this study found the wisdom of the two religious communities in Lingsar Village, West Lombok Regency, Indonesia. This area exhibits unique strategies for sharing the same pilgrimage site: two communities performing their respective rituals in turn and in unison in the same space with complete understanding. This tolerance practiced …

Tourism And Crisis: Comparing The Impacts Of Covid-19 And Natural Disasters On The Hajj And Umrah Industry, Udin Supriadi Dr, Mohammad Rindu Fajar Islamy Mr, Ahmad Fuadin Mr, Muhammad A. Rahkman Mr

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study aims to compare the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic and Natural Disasters on the Hajj and Umrah industries. This pilgrimage substantially contributes to foreign exchange earnings; therefore, the negative potential caused by disasters must be a significant concern for policymakers in this sector. In recent years, religious-based tourism, especially the hajj and umrah (the out-of-season pilgrimage to Mecca), has experienced significant rise of demand worldwide. To explore the impact of various disasters on this industry, using the purposive sampling method, semi-structured interviews were conducted with travel agents in Bandung over the course of two months. The findings from …

Ijrtp Volume 10(Iii) Table Of Contents, Kevin A. Griffin, Razaq Raj, Carlos Fernandes

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

An Overview Of Tour-Guide Training Literature In Türkiye, Nazım Çokişler

International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

The discussion of tour-guide training, which started in the 1990s in Türkiye has been taken up in the associated literature more than in any other country. No studies were previously carried out, however, to place the nearly-30-year-prolonged discussions in a historical framework and evaluate them. Yet, understanding the evolution of such training-related discussions has the potential to lead to remarkably useful information for future analyses of the subject. The purpose of the present research is to provide an overall evaluation of the literature about tourguide training in Türkiye. To this end, the literature was reviewed, and the issues addressed as …

Interpretation Performed By Certified Tourist Guides In Lisbon During The Pandemic: A Case Study, Luis Miguel Brito, Cristina Carvalho

International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

Interpretation quality distinguishes tourist guides. According to an investigation carried out by the authors in 2012, tourists who travel with a guide claim that although these professionals play many different, relevant, and complementary roles, interpretation is, without a doubt, the most important asset. In Europe, a traveller can find tourist guides who have a certification issued by international European organisations and who have gone through training in interpretation, together with guides who do not have any training at all and are not certified by any organisation. This paper is only about the former. The idea of conducting this study arose …

Travel Agencies And Tourist Guides Adapting To Crisis: The Portuguese Case, Ilídia C. G. Carvalho

International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

Tourism is constantly changing and new paradigms arise. Most recently, travel agencies and tourist guides have been facing difficulties and have had to quickly adapt themselves to be able to keep a position in the tourism market. COVID-19 brought major changes to travel and experience in destinations and it certainly increased the use of technology, which has totally changed communication systems and relationships in tourism. For this paper, interviews with Portuguese travel agents and tourist guides were carried out and were later analysed allowing the author to gain insights into the current situation regarding these two stakeholders, which were previously …

Smart City Tours As An Innovative Way To (Re)Discover Urban Environments In An Italian Context, Miriam L. Weiß

International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

This article explores the foundations upon which to build innovation and further professionalise the tour guiding sector in an Italian context. It is based on a cooperation initiative started in March 2020 just at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic which proposes smart city tours as innovative, sustainable, and creative ways to (re)discover urban environments with the expected impact to make tour participants think, influence post-tour behaviour towards sustainability, and to provide a differentiated view of a visited place. The study is designed as a formative evaluation prior to introducing measures that allow further exploitation of the potential for smart …

The Resilience Of Proximity Tourism During The Pandemic: Local Walking Tours Of Budapest, János Klaniczay

International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

Global tourism was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, but an exception can be seen among walking tour companies providing tours for locals in Budapest, who saw a rise in demand for their tours during the summer and early autumn of 2020. During pre-pandemic times tourism levels broke records annually, and one of the main concerns was overtourism in certain cities, but due to COVID-19, international arrivals hit record-lows and millions of jobs became endangered. Meanwhile data show that local alternative walking tours in Budapest could operate sustainably during the pandemic at almost the same capacity as before, because local …

Tour Guides And Access To Trails: Problems In The Baħrija Area Of Malta, David Pace

International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

The Maltese islands barely cover an area of 300 square kilometres and yet, they enjoy a varied landscape characterised by cliffs, ridges, hills and valleys. There are over a hundred valleys on the main island of Malta and many provide important waterways during the rainy season and present some of the most beautiful and varied scenery. The most accessible include the Qlejgħa valley and White Poplar Valley (Wied il-Luq). Both are frequented by thousands of visitors, particularly during the weekends and are also quite popular with tourists during the winter months. Malta’s high population density, the influx of millions of …

Ijtgr Volume 3 Table Of Contents, Kevin A. Griffin, Luis Miguel Brito, Glen Farrugia

International Journal of Tour Guiding and Visitor Attraction Research

No abstract provided.

Developing A Visitor Profile: The Hill Of Tara For Hill Of Tara Conservation Management Plan, Catherine Gorman, Kevin Fogarty, Emylii Santana Souza, Gabriela Stasiulyte

Reports / Surveys

A Conservation Management Plan for the State-owned lands at the Hill of Tara was commissioned by the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in January 2018. As an element of this at the request of the Heritage Council and the Discovery Programme, a visitor profile was undertaken by staff and students of the School of Hospitality Management and Tourism, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT). According to the Office of Public Works (OPW), over 200,000 people visit Tara archaeological site each year, and the site is being actively promoted as part of the Ireland’s Ancient East brand by Fáilte Ireland. …

Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation In A Small Archipelago: The Role Of Ecotourism In Malta, Karl Agius

International Journal of Islands Research

The aim of this paper is to present the potential of ecotourism to develop into a niche contributing to climate change adaptation strategies whilst making the existing tourism industry more resilient. The paper provides an overview of mitigation measures adopted in Malta by the aviation, tourism and hospitality industry as well as policy makers in the archipelago to respond to major challenges that climate change poses for tourism. These changes are vital to lure ecotourists and to support ecotourism development. Six main themes emerged from the research in the context of the role ecotourism can play as an adaptation to …

A Relational Approach To Networks In A Tourism Destination: Business And Family Networks In San Vito Lo Capo, Sicily, Giovanni Ruggieri, Salvatore Iannolino

International Journal of Islands Research

This article constructs a relational framework using the principles of the Network Approach to examining the business exchange structure of a tourist destination. Network Analysis is the methodology to analyse the metrics of collaboration and cooperation among destination companies. The model was applied in a remote tourist destination named San Vito Lo Capo on the island of Sicily, where tourism has significantly expanded in the last twenty years. The focus is on how groupings of small companies within family relations can govern and be responsible for tourism destination cooperation. As the main result, the existence was identified, of a relational …

The Nexus Between Tourism Demand And Regional Characteristics: The Case Of Japanese Islands, Kantaro Takahashi

International Journal of Islands Research

This paper explores the relationships between tourism demand and regional characteristics of the Japanese islands. A regression model was carried out for 113 islands designated by the Remote Island Development Act, which is one of the laws designed to promote rural areas in Japan. Results show that the transportation situation was related to the demand of arrival tourists, whereas the results were insignificant for the model with the response variable as lodging tourists. Meanwhile, location factors were significant for lodging tourists—that is, open sea areas have more lodging tourism demand than islands in inland sea areas. Furthermore, this study found …

Ijir Title Page And Table Of Contents Vol. 3, Kevin A. Griffin, Giovanni Ruggieri, Patrizia Calò, Razaq Raj

International Journal of Islands Research

No abstract provided.

The Arts And Changing Rural Places, Bernadette Quinn Dr

Blog Posts

This blog post reflects on how recent changes to rural Ireland is influencing the arts. It recognises that rural places are very vibrant and dynamic, and that this offers many opportunities and challenges from an arts perspective. The blog also reflects on a panel discussion that the FADE project team hosted on ‘The arts and changing rural places’ at the Arts Council & Local Government’s biennial Places Matter conference in March 2022.

The research activities conducted for this publication were funded by the Irish Research Council.

Review Of: Dark Tourism And Pilgrimage, Dino Bozonelos

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Holy Baths As Attractions In Religious Tourism: A Study Of Ritualistic Bathing Fairs In India, Sanchita Paul

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Much of what marks the contemporary Hindu ritual scene finds its origin in the activities of Indus Valley Civilisation. There has been, without doubt, a corrosion of religious faith with the progress of modernity, but surprisingly the bathing tradition for ritual ablution spanning across centuries of time has not faded, despite the passage of so many ages and despite changes all around. Hinduism has a strong and ancient tradition of pilgrimage, widely recognised as Tīrtha-yatra (tour of the sacred fords), which involves holy baths in water bodies as a symbolic purification ritual. Most of the Hindu pilgrimage places are along …

Determinants Of Spiritual Tourism Consumption: A Hierarchical Approach, Suneel Kumar, Shivangi Gupta, Shekhar Asthana

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper aims to analyse the relationship between factors influencing the travel intentions of the spiritual tourist. The research design comprises three segments, i.e., identifying factors from the literature, conducting interviews with the academic experts and managers, and analysing the responses recorded. The Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) technique is used to determine the interlinkage between the factors and develop a hierarchical relationship. This paper identified twelve factors that influence the travel intention of spiritual tourists. The results indicate that the pro-tourism attitude of the management of religious monuments, presence of relaxation and recreational activities, historical and cultural heritage of a …

Exploring The Potential Of Halal Tourism Through Institutional Analysis Of Halal Certifiers In The Philippines, Steven Von Cuevas, Cristopher Allen Franco, Robert Charles Capistrano, Junnell Guia

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study analyses various institutions’ halal certification and standards in the Philippines and their potential for halal tourism. The demand for halal services and products has been increasing in the Philippines, however, the major halal certifiers in the country uphold different standards, leading to confusion and abuse in halal accreditation and certification. The unification of halal standards is a complex process due to varying interpretations and thus, this research utilised case study methods to analyse the similarities and differences of the three major halal certifiers in the country within the lenses of the Work System Elements Framework and the Institutional …

The Development Potential For Local Communities Of Religious Tourists Visiting Sacred Graves, Mohammad Taufiq Rahman, Rully Khairul Anwar

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study aims to analyse the impact of religious tourists’ visits to tombs of saints. It illustrates the effect of these visits on the economic development of the surrounding community. This is qualitative research with a sociological approach used to determine the public acceptance of religious tourism to sacred places such as the Tomb of the Islamic Saints in Tasikmalaya, West Java, Indonesia. The results show that the community has made economic use of tourists that perform pilgrimages to fulfil their psychological needs, such as peace, tranquillity, and a sense of security. Furthermore, local governments’ development of religious tourism makes …

The Economic Impact Of Covid-19 On Religious Tourism To The Kartarpur Corridor, Farooq Haq, Anita Medhekar

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The aim of this paper is to analyse the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on religious tourism in the Kartarpur Gurdwara Corridor between the Punjab States of Pakistan and India. The corridor was opened as a peace building initiative 72 years after the partition of India-Pakistan. In November 2019, thousands of Sikh pilgrims visited Kartarpur and Nankana Sahib in Punjab to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of the founder of the Sikh religion Guru Nanakji, where he spent last 19 years of his life. The Government of Pakistan invested heavily to build the infrastructure facilities for connecting both borders …

Residents’ Perceptions Of Religious Tourism And Its Socio- Economic Impacts On Host Communities: A Study Of Redemption Camp, Mowe, Ogun State, Nigeria, Titilayo Olufunke Olukole

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religious tourism has been identified as one of the major tourism types with impacts on the sociocultural and economic life of the host community. Nigeria is well-known globally for high levels of Christian religious activities attracting worshippers from different countries. However, little is documented on the socio-economic impacts of the religious tourist flow to Christian religious sites on host communities in Nigeria. This paper was designed to investigate the socio-economic impact of Christian religious tourism on host communities, using the Redemption Camp, RCCG and Mowe Community, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State, Nigeria as a case study. Both quantitative and qualitative research …

Young Turkish Tourists’ Religious Tourism Motivations, Perceptions And Intentions About A Religious Destination: The Case Of Konya, Turkey, Yasin Bilim, Sadık Ay

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Young tourists represent over 20% of the tourism market and are an important element in current tourism activities. Cultural tourism, encompassing religious tourism, has increased in recent times, however, young tourists exhibit less preference for religious destinations, particularly within their own religions, compared to other options. Their preferences generally lean towards non-spiritual or secular motivations rather than religious based travel motivations. Within this context, this study aims to determine religious tourism motivations, perceptions and related behaviours of young tourists by evaluating their preferences and consumption patterns at religious sites. The study is undertaken on the basis of secondary research supported …

Cultural Tourism, Religion And Religious Heritage In Castile And León, Spain, Miguel González-González, Óscar Fernández-Álvarez

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Tourism is a driving force of the economy for many countries around the world. The large number of architectural and intangible World Heritage Sites have consolidated those countries in their strong positions as cultural tourism destinations. Within cultural tourism, religious tourism is particularly prominent. This work focuses on Spain and specifically on some of its regions which lack beaches but possess a wealth of religious cultural heritage, such as Castile and León, which have viewed such heritage as an asset to attract a different kind of tourist. The objectives of this study are to highlight the value of religious heritage …

Professor Alan Clarke (1956-2021), Kevin A. Griffin, Melanie Smith, Peter Wiltshier, Ágnes Raffay, Nicola Macleod, Allan Jepson, Raoul Bianchi, Scott Mccabe

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Ijrtp Volume 10(Ii) Table Of Contents, Kevin A. Griffin, Razaq Raj, Carlos Fernandes

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Action Research In Hospitality And Tourism Research, Denise O'Leary, David Coghlan

Books/Book Chapters

In the context of tourism and hospitality studies, the potential of action research for generating robust actionable knowledge has not been yet realized. This chapter provides an account of the theory and practice of action research, demonstrates how it may be designed and implemented, and how it may generate actionable knowledge. It provides illustrative examples and shows how this research approach aligns effectively with some of the themes that currently engage the attention of researchers in the fields of tourism and hospitality such as process improvement, sustainability, and community-based tourism development. Thus, it makes a case for more widespread use …

Pilgrimage During Covid-19: Impacts, Adaptations, And Recovery, Anne E. Bailey Dr

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Towards the end of 2020, this journal published an issue devoted to the impact of COVID-19. The novel coronavirus was having a devastating effect not only on public health but also on the global religious tourism industry. Places of worship closed, pilgrimage events and activities were cancelled, and travel restrictions limited mobility. A viable vaccination was predicted to be eighteen months away. One contributor even asked, ‘Is this the end of pilgrimage?’

This article re-examines and re-evaluates the impact of COVID-19, taking up some of the themes introduced in the 2020 issue. Focusing on western pilgrimage, with evidence from online …

Social Production And Consumption Of Space: A Lefebvrian Analysis Of The Kumbh Mela, Christine Buzinde, David Manuel-Navarrete, Jyotsna (Josi) M. Kalavar, Neena Kohli

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Kumbh Mela is the world’s largest pilgrimage gathering on the shores of the River Ganges. Drawing on Lefebvre’s (1991) trialectics of space framework, this paper interrogates the spatial dynamics of the Kumbh Mela through the spatial meanings espoused by local and international pilgrims. Accounting for dominant discourses that frame the event as occurring in and around a sacred waterscape, five focus groups with pilgrims were conducted at the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, India. The findings indicate that local pilgrims were aware of river pollution, but they used discursive strategies to decouple this material fact from their lived spiritual experiences; from …