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Untapped Halal-Friendly Tourism Potential For Taiwan, Arina Khoirunnisa, Indrawati Indrawati, Yu-Fang Yen, Subhash Kizhakanveatil Bhaskaran Pillai

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Being the second largest belief, and fastest growing economy, many of the people from Muslim countries started travelling outside their countries due to increased economic prosperity and curiosity of exploring different cultures. The present study focuses on a non-Muslim country Taiwan, where the government is taking initiatives to attract the new segment of Muslim travellers. To support such initiatives, Halal-friendly-tourism is promoted in Taiwan. The pandemic period of 2019-2022 led to exploring different forms of tourism for reviving the ailing tourism sector, and cultural and heritage tourism is gaining prominence in this direction. Taiwan is trying to showcase its cultural …

Nostalgia, Trauma And Recovery: A Case Study Of Hazrat Hamza Shah Shrine, Ismail Rafik Shaikh, Subhash Kizhakanveatil Bhaskaran Pillai, Indrawati Indrawati, Irfan Syed Mirza, Yu-Fang Yen, Arina Khoirunnisa

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religious tourism, as a pillar of spirituality and faith, continues to uplift and encourage believers in times of hardship. However, religious tourism was severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected many stakeholders at different levels. This study explores the experiences of various stakeholders at the Hazrat Hamza Shah Shrine in Goa over three different time periods: nostalgia (before the pandemic), trauma (during the pandemic), and recovery (following the pandemic). Utilising qualitative data from interviews and social media sentiment analysis (53 posts on Facebook, 185 on Instagram, 64 on YouTube, and 102 on Google Maps), the study has identified a …

Crafting Myths In Modern Times: Essentialising Duty, Obligation And Exchange In Religious Tourism, Anuja Jose, Vinita Chandra, Uday Pratap Singh

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper aims to study the factors that contribute to the success of present-day myths in religious tourism. It also seeks to investigate the factors that compel modern pilgrims to accept a certain myth and the role played by stakeholders of religious tourism in the creation of a myth. In order to explore these research questions, Kauḍī Mātā temple in Varanasi, a popular religious tourist spot for Southern Indians, was chosen for Case Study. Qualitative data have been generated through in-depth interviewing. Simultaneously, several myths of goddess Kauḍī Mātā were recovered from textual and digital sources in addition to the …

Harnessing Eco-Friendly Practices And Transforming Communities Through Social Entrepreneurship: Exploring The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Mode, Iqra Sajad Khan Scholar, Ashaq Hussain Najar Dr, Manik Arora Dr

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study examines the influence of religious tourism on regional development, with a specific focus on eco-friendly practices and social entrepreneurship. Religious pilgrimages play a significant role in stimulating the tourism sector, hence, creating economic prospects on a global scale. Nevertheless, the extent of scholarly investigation about the impact of implementing eco-friendly practices on nearby communities, particularly within the context of religious pilgrimage destinations, remains minimal. The primary objective of this research centres on the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine located in Jammu and Kashmir renowned for its widespread praise and profound cultural importance. A qualitative methodology was employed to …

Confucian Virtue Ethics And Tourists’ Response To Spiritual Destinations: Ho Chi Minh City, An Sor Model Approach, Nguyen Van Si, Vo Duy Minh

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study aims to identify key factors that impact tourists’ responses, such as electronic word of mouth, and revisit intention to spiritual destinations. Based on the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) framework, this study introduces ritual propriety in Confucian Virtue Ethics as a new ‘stimulus’, along with destination image and tourism facilities. In addition, this study introduces spiritual belief and gratitude as two new ‘organisms’ together with destination attachment. The quantitative analysis of 470 spiritual tourists’ responses in Ho Chi Minh City confirmed that ritual propriety, destination image, and tourism facilities as ‘stimuli’, impact gratitude, spiritual belief, and destination attachment as ‘organisms’, resulting …

Pilgrimage In The 12th Century: From The Ancient Travel Practices To Religious Tourism Routing Practices, Mafalda Martins Nascimento, Luís Mota Figueira

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimages assumed a crucial importance in the Middle Ages and in religious history in general, having always mobilised thousands of people worldwide. Travel in general and movements for religious reasons still assume an extraordinary relevance in the tourist sector, providing an important contribution to regional and local development involving sacred places, creating value and benefiting local populations. Thematic tourism routing is a component of the offer (endogenous resources transformed into attractions), planned from the local (local circuit) to the global (international route).

In this medieval context some religious-military orders assumed a relevant role at a socioeconomic level, whose legacy is …

The Unicorn And Christ – Metamorphosis And Symbology, Luis Mendonça De Carvalho, Francisca Maria Fernandes, Maria Fátima Nunes, Ana Maria Costa, Paula Nozes, Ana Paula Figueira

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The unicorn is a legendary chimaera that, for centuries, has been present in the mindset of Euro-Mediterranean cultures. Although its morphological description changed, tradition identifies it as an animal like a horse, albeit smaller and with a spiralling horn on its head pointing forward. The unicorn has been known since Antiquity, with references by authors such as Ctesias and Pliny. However, its relevance for medieval Europeans began with the Biblical references to this animal in several Old Testament verses. These verses gave legitimacy to the unicorn, and it was accepted as a tangible animal. During the Middle Ages and early …

Review Of: The Routledge Handbook Of Religious And Spiritual Tourism, By Daniel H. Olsen And Dallen J. Timothy, Bincy Kaluvilla

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Book Review of Review of: The Routledge Handbook of Religious and Spiritual Tourism, by Daniel H. Olsen and Dallen J. Timothy. Review by Bincy Baburaj Kaluvilla

Ontology, Epistemology And Axiology In Halal Research: Empirical Evidence From Hajj Pilgrimage, Mohammad Mominul Islam

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The philosophical contributions of ontology, axiology, and epistemology have not provided a clear understanding of conventional or Halal tourism, including the Hajj pilgrimage. Against this background, this study aims to explore the Halal perspective of knowledge creation, including At-Tawhid, Ijtihad, and philosophies, through a qualitative and grounded theory approach with inductive reasoning and ethnographic approach. The author collected primary data through active observation of the Hajj rituals from June 16th to July 25th, 2022, in Makkah, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and popular blog posts about the travel experience of pilgrims. Then, the data were analysed using ATLAS.ti to result …

Explaining The Satisfaction Of The Religious Tourist: The Case Of Maimonides In The City Of Cordoba, César Mora Márquez, Angelo Puccia

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Tourism was one of the most severely affected sectors by the Covid-19 pandemic. Even religious tourism, traditionally less susceptible to market fluctuations, is now compelled to adopt innovative strategies in response to these effects. This article analyses the satisfaction of religious tourism, specifically its relationship with the figure of Maimonides, who is considered to be an important religious thinker and is included within the Pantheon database of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A questionnaire was distributed and completed by 720 tourists in the city of Cordoba, Spain, which has close links to Maimonides. The findings indicated that the spirituality …

Spirituality And The Quest For Transcendence On The Portuguese Way Of St. James, José Luís Braga, Miguel Pazos Otón, Isabel Borges

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela is a kind of proto tourism in a world where the number of pilgrimages has increased considerably. In the past the only motivation for such pilgrimages was religious, today we are witnessing the emergence of new motivations, such as cultural and even sporting ones. The research questions that guide this study are the following: Are faith and religion still strong enough motivations to justify pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela? Are there points of convergence between religious and secular pilgrims? Can the Camino be a means of awakening religious vocations? In short, what is the …

Ijrtp Volume 13(I) Table Of Contents, Kevin A. Griffin, Razaq Raj, Carlos Fernandes

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

IJRTP Volume 13(i) Table of Contents

Invited Paper: Augmenting Pilgrimage With Ai: Walking The Kumano Kodō Iseji With A Digital Companion, Wayne E. Arnold, John A. Shultz

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Can a pilgrimage feel sacred when walking it alongside an artificial intelligence? In early 2025, we set out with a custom-built AI companion to walk the 170km Kumano Kodō Iseji route, exploring how digital tools might reshape one of Japan’s oldest pilgrimage paths. Rather than replacing the traditional experience, the AI deepened it by providing real-time translations, historical context, and even companionship during long stretches of remote trail. This field reflection explores how AI, when thoughtfully programmed and intentionally used, can augment sacred travel without diminishing its meaning. Walking with AI allowed us to engage more fully with the layered …

A Study Of Push And Pull Motivational Factors Of Religious Tourism In India, Niharika Singh, Somesh Dhamija, Aruna Dhamija

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study investigates the motivational factors that drive both foreign and domestic religious tourists to visit Vrindavan, one of India’s most famous Hindu religious sites. Using an established push and pull framework, the research explores why tourists choose Vrindavan as a destination for religious tourism. Based on existing theoretical and empirical studies, the researchers developed a quantitative approach, employing a three-part questionnaire to collect data from 598 visitors. Through Principal Component Factor Analysis, the study identified five key push factors and four pull factors, with religious beliefs and cultural enjoyment being the most prominent. The findings confirm the relevance of …

Visitor Experience Model At The Marian Shrine Of La Vang, Younghee Lee, Hyo Dan Cho

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This research explores tourists’ experiences at La Vang in Vietnam. La Vang as a place of Catholic Marian apparition, is a sacred pilgrimage site that holds great religious significance for Catholics. This study employs both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to develop a model of the visitor’s experiences at La Vang. The initial qualitative study involved in-depth interviews and participant observation. Subsequently, the findings of the qualitative study were validated in the second quantitative study, which involved 75 surveys with residents of Macau who visited La Vang. This study proposes seven key scales measuring tourists’ experiential aspects at the sacred place. …

Religious Festivals: A Niche Celebration To Foster Economic And Socio-Cultural Sustainability, Pooja R, Sathiyabamavathy K Dr

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Festivals are a distinct type of celebration and have the potential to boost the economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism. This case study analysis focuses on the Chithirai festival, a well-known and recognised religious festival in South India that attracts many visitors yearly. The festival is celebrated in Madurai, southern Tamil Nadu, popularly known as India’s cultural capital. The unique Chithirai festival commemorates various narratives from Hindu scriptures, the most notable of which is the celestial wedding of Goddess Meenakshi and Lord Sundareswaran. This article delves into the festival’s economic and socio-cultural contributions and its historical and religious implications. The …

Exploring Models Of Reflective Practice To Aid The Understanding Of Pilgrimage Experience, Chris Hall

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper explores the use of models of reflective practice to aid reflection and sense making for a walking pilgrimage experience and analyses the challenges of using such a model in this context. The paper then examines whether Greenia’s definition of pilgrimage experience can be used as a model to aid reflection. This is subsequently applied to a 5-day walking pilgrimage experience and its effectiveness assessed.

Miracles Have Subjective Meaning For Religious Travellers, Even If They Are Not Supernatural, Stephen F. Haller

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Miracles still play a role in religious tourism even though it is impossible to distinguish them as divinely inspired, rather than derived from ‘mere’ psychological causes. One might ask whether it matters to a religious tourist or pilgrim that the adoption of a religious attitude to the mysteries of miracles is not grounded in religious belief in the supernatural. Are religious tourists and pilgrims not just inventing comforting illusions in wilful ignorance?

This philosophical paper will relate a few examples of miracles; and explain how the experience of miracles is a subjective experience, and not an objective belief in a …

Review Of: Pilgrimage Aotearoa. Haerenga Tapu Aotearoa: Your Guide To 100 New Zealand Sites, By Jenny Boyack And John Hornblow, Ian S. Mcintosh

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Review of: Pilgrimage Aotearoa. Haerenga Tapu Aotearoa: Your Guide to 100 New Zealand Sites, by Jenny Boyack and John Hornblow. Review by Ian McIntosh.

Women Walking: Experiences Of Sacred Time On Mexican Guadalupan Pilgrimage, Sadie Yates

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Each July, 60,000 Catholic pilgrims walk from their home state of Querétaro, Mexico, to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, a journey totaling 17 days and 450 km. Roughly 25,000 of these pilgrims are women, who walk in their own group, one day ahead of the men (Catholic News Agency, 2018). The goal of this pilgrimage is to see the Virgin of Guadalupe, a strong symbol of Catholic and Mexican identity since her original appearance to an indigenous peasant man in 1531. Yet, for many of these women pilgrims, the pilgrimage process is just as important …

A Spiritual Pilgrimage To A Celtic Homeland: Searching And Internalising In Grief From Stone To Sea. A Collaborative Autoethnography, Laura Lewis, Eunice Gorman

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This collaborative autoethnography poses the research question; How does one’s experience of grief and anticipatory grief mobilise pilgrimage journeys to ancestral homelands? Two theoretical constructs found in the academic literature related to grief and loss are explored for their influence on both authors’ respective pilgrimage journeys to the Celtic ancestral homeland of their deceased and ‘vanishing’ fathers in Wales and Ireland. The theoretical constructs explored through an extensive review of paternal personal documents of one author (Laura), revealed thematic ideas that could be best understood through an elaboration of the academic literature(s) that inform understandings of grief and bereavement. These …

Ijrtp Volume 12(Iv) Table Of Contents, Ian S. Mcintosh, Dane Munro, Dagnachew Leta Senbeto, Kevin A. Griffin, Carlos Fernandes, Razaq Raj

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Special Issue: Papers Presented at Sacred Journeys 11th Global Conference - Pilgrimage: A Growing Global Phenomenon, Waijun Kaikan Conference Center, Chion-In Buddhist Temple, Kyoto, Japan, July 1-4, 2024

Khuralgarh Sahib: A Pilgrimage Destination For Adi Dharm Followers, Anna V. Bochkovskaya

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In the 1920s, a protest movement named Ad(i) Dhar(a)m, or Original Religion, emerged in the British province of Punjab with the aim of establishing a religious identity for the untouchable castes and low-caste people, basically from the Sikh community. The Adi Dharmis venerated Sant (Saint) Ravidas, a medieval mystic poet, a Chamar or tanner by origin. The list of their gurus also included Maharishi Valmiki, the legendary first poet — Adi Kavi, or the author of Ramayana, as well as two low-caste Bhakti poets — Kabir and Namdev.

The colonial Census of 1931 listed Adi Dharm as a new religion …

Rebuilding Possible: Pilgrimage And Learned Helplessness, Christianna Soumakis

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Learned helplessness is a belief in one’s own powerlessness which may develop after repeated exposure to stressful situations ranging from domestic abuse to public education. It is associated with pessimism, passivity in the face of obstacles, and depression. Pilgrimage, conversely, is associated with agency — striking out on one’s own in search of physical, emotional, cognitive, and / or spiritual transformation. Combining psychological literature with my personal experience as a pilgrim, special education student, artist, art facilitator for people with special needs, and professor, I argue that walking pilgrimages such as the Camino de Santiago offer a comprehensive opportunity to …

Navigating Liminal Moments Through Pilgrimage: Insights From The Journey Of St. Clare Of Assisi, Alexandria M. Egler, John V. Kruse

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

During the late hours of Palm Sunday in 1209, Clare Offreduccio embarked on a pilgrimage that would come to define her as a leader and role model for women. In an act of faith and bravery, St. Clare of Assisi abandoned her life as a noble and all of the security, power, and privilege that came with it. In so doing, she denied the marriage plans her family had for her that would advance their political, social, and economic future. By exiting her home through the door of death and then the city of Assisi through one of the fortified …

The Kyoto Trail: Sacred Sites On A Pseudo-Pilgrimage, Wayne E. Arnold, John A. Shultz

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

How should we conceive of a secular walking trail that traverses a country’s premier holy sites in and around its spiritual capital? The Kyoto Trail is something of an oddity in comparison to the plentiful sacred walking paths throughout Japan. The 84-kilometer circuit probes and circumambulates the city of Kyoto via a horseshoe-like arc. It links an array of holy mountains with lush realms of nature and connects dozens of famous pilgrimage locations of exceptionally varied descriptions. However, while the trail sometimes overlaps with medieval pilgrimage routes, it is a relatively new course, established in the early 1990s through initiatives …

Pilgrimage: A Growing Global Phenomenon - Editorial, Dane Munro, Dagnachew Leta Senbeto, Ian S. Mcintosh

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Editorial and introduction to Special Issue of papers presented at Sacred Journeys 11th Global Conference - Pilgrimage: A Growing Global Phenomenon, Waijun Kaikan Conference Center, Chion-In Buddhist Temple, Kyoto, Japan, July 1-4, 2024

A Sacred Mountain And Storytelling About Pilgrimage: Contemporary Religious Practice Of Incense Associations At Mount Tai, Ziqi Xuan

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

As a form of pilgrimage in China, the Chaoshan jinxiang (朝山進香, ‘offering incense towards the mountain’), is a ritual that has garnered significant academic attention. However, research on contemporary incense offering practices remains inadequate. Grounded in fieldwork conducted from September 2023 to January 2024, this paper delves into the pilgrimage practices of local incense associations at Mount Tai, a historical site steeped in profound religious significance for centuries. Within the framework of collective memory studies, the paper posits that the contemporary practices of incense offering used to connect with spiritual beings during the pilgrimage to Mount Tai highlight a shift …

Ijrtp Volume 12(Iii) Editorial / Introduction, Dr. Taruna

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Editorial / Introduction to Special Issue derived from Papers Presented at International Conference on Religious Tourism (ICRT-2023), held at the Department of Management Studies, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University Lucknow, (U.P), India, 27-28 March 2023

Tourism Gentrification: The Case Of Mevlana Museum And Its Surroundings, Nuray Turker, Sibel Ayyildiz, Ayse Nur Uslu

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Today, residents experience tourism-driven gentrification in many tourist destinations. Gentrification due to tourism has both beneficial economic and physical effects, but it also has a negative impact on a number of sociocultural, physical, and environmental factors. The aim of this study is to explore the physical, economic, and socio-cultural effects of tourism activities in and around Mevlana Museum in Konya, Turkey, which is home to the tomb of the religious figure Mevlana, a symbol of tolerance and peace, from the perspective of tourism gentrification. To this end, a qualitative study was carried out in January 2023 with 15 Konya-based respondents, …