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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 …

Exposition Of St. Francis Xavier’S Holy Relics In Goa: An Importance-Performance Analysis, Subhash Kizhakanveatil Bhaskaran Pillai, Kaustubh Kamat, Miriam Scaglione, Carmelita D'Mello, Klaus Weiermair

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage Tourism, one of the oldest forms of travelling, is the largest tourism sector in India; annually more than 70% of domestic tourist movement is for religious purposes which comes to 250 million pilgrims (Jachowski, 2000, Singh, 2016) and accounts for 20% of the revenue generated in the tourism industry (Dewan et al., 2008), hence, making it significant religiously, economically, politically, as well as sociologically. The present study was based on a survey conducted among the visitors who came for the 17th Exposition of St Francis Xavier’s holy relics, a Christian religious event, from 22nd November 2014 to 4th January …

Comparative Pricing Analysis Of Mecca’S Religious Tourism, Said M. Ladki, Rayan A. Mazeh

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study compares the costing practices of three religious tourists groups. Specifically, the study compares the costs of Islamic religious tourism to Mecca among three groups: 1) Indonesia and India, 2) Lebanon and Tunisia, 3) Dubai and Qatar. The selection of the three groups was based on the following principle: Group 1: Represents the most populated and less affluent Islamic countries. Group 2: Represents the less affluent Arab States with moderate income Group 3: Represents the richest Arab Islamic countries in the world. Results indicate that countries with wealthy economies charge much higher prices for Hajj packages than those with …

Terrorism, Tourism And Religious Travellers, Ayesha Chowdhury, Razaq Raj, Kevin Griffin, Alan Clarke

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Curiously, while tourism is cited as the world’s largest industry (UNWTO, 2016), it is simultaneously a fragile industry that is highly vulnerable to the impact of the ongoing threat of terrorism. Internationally, terrorism influences the tourist mind-set in a number of ways, in particular it creates fear for travellers and causes economic and social impacts to change the behaviour of people and dissuade them from visiting certain places in the world. Thus, the impact of terrorism has caused tremendous damage to the travel industry. A number of countries which previously depended quite heavily on the tourism industry are suffering in …

Ignatius Of Loyola’S Traces In Manresa. A New Incentive For Religious Tourism?, Joan Carles Llurdés, Francesc Romagosa

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The city of Manresa, located in the heart of Catalonia, has spent years trying to make profitable its cultural and urban heritage as a strategy for a better tourism positioning among other mid-sized cities that are competing for attracting tourists in an increasingly competitive global context. However, for various reasons the city has not been able to earn a place in Catalonia’s tourism scene, and it still remains in a preliminary tourism development stage. In this sense, the latest initiative taken by the city council has to do with its religious heritage, through the project ‘Manresa 2022’, which consists of …

Streets Of Orthodoxy: Developing Religious Tourism In The Mount Paiko Area, Central Macedonia, Greece, Fotis E. Kilipiris, Athanasios Dermetzopoulos

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religion and faith have always been strong motivations affecting society's evolution and people's actions. Additionally, religion and pilgrimage in contemporary societies have, among others, considerable economic implications. Religious tourism, an emerging form of tourism activity for many destinations, plays an important role for local economies. Rural economies can rely upon religious tourism as a supplementary source of income in many environments, to supplement agricultural income.

This paper, addresses issues regarding religious tourism development in a mountainous area in Greece, rich in religious as well as cultural and natural tourist attractions. The paper also highlights the role of the church as …

The Role Of Religious Tourism In Creating Destination Image: The Case Of Konya Museum, Murat Kocyi̇gi̇t

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The image of a destination comprises perceptions acquired by individuals, oriented to the specifications of a destination. Touristic destinations are, in order to be able to attract more tourists in the competition environment, in charge of developing marketing efforts, making the best of positioning their products and services together with their economic, cultural and social dimensions in the intelligence of tourists. In this direction, the aim of this study is to determine the destination image perceived by tourists who travel with the purpose of religious tourism when they visit to Konya Museum (Mawlana Jalaladdin Rumi). The data for the study …

The Destination Marketing Development Of Religious Tourism In Uzbekistan, Bakhtiyor Navruz-Zoda, Zebiniso Navruz-Zoda

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Uzbekistan has great potential to develop pilgrimage tourism based on the spiritual culture of the Islamic religion. Destination marketing development of religious tourism, based on Sufism is an innovative direction for the organisation of pilgrimage tourism. In this paper, the dual nature of this kind of religious tourism is revealed to comprise: first a pilgrimage nature, that consists of the Sufi pilgrimage to Sufi shrines to perform ritual and; secondly a religious-cognitive nature, whereby, a major segment of travellers can be Muslim, non-Sufis and scientists, researchers, teachers, tutors and other categories of tourists who are interested in the learning of …

Religious Tourism In The Hill Of Tepexpan: A New Research Approach - From Dedifferentiation, Víctor Mora-Torres, Rocío Serrano-Barquín, Héctor Favila-Cisneros, Carolina Serrano-Barquín

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This theoretical and methodological paper presents research undertaken to comprehend the social dynamic of religious tourism in a traditional sanctuary located in the Hill of Tepexpan, Mexico. Visitor experience, as tourist or pilgrim, has been little studied in Mexican religious tourism literature, which has focused mainly on quantitative and economics aspects. For this reason, a more holistic and comprehensive way to understand the phenomenon is desirable, especially in destinations that receive a variety of visitors with different practices and motivations.

The Tepexpan Hill Sanctuary has been a sacred place since Colonial times for two ethnic groups: Mazahuas and Otomíes. Their …

Exploring The Motives Of Religious Travel By Applying The Ahp Method – The Case Study Of Monastery Vujan (Serbia), Sanja Božic, Bojana Spasojević, Miroslav D. Vujičić, Igor Stamenkovic

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religious tourism is considered as the oldest form of people’s travel. Thousands of years ago people travelled miles led by religious motives. Even though pilgrimage is older than most of the other tourism forms, research on the major motives for religious travel still occupies scientific attention. Vujan Monastery represents one of the main riddles among religious tourism researchers in Serbia. After the mysterious healing of Serbian Patriarch Pavle in 1946 who suffered from tuberculosis, this monastery became one of the most famous sacred places for orthodox Christians. The principle aim of this paper is to propose a new way for …

Demographic Characteristics Influencing Religious Tourism Behaviour: Evidence Form A Central-Eastern-European Country, Anna Irimias, Ariel Mitev, Gabor Michalko

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Although religious tourism and pilgrimage have been widely studied there is very limited research that explores the peculiarities in attitude and behaviour among tourists with different demographic factors. The present exploratory study enhances the discussion on perception of religious tourism behaviour. Specifically, eleven statements on attitude and behaviour were explored among 345 Hungarians with different socio-demographic backgrounds. The results show that there are significant variations between senior and young travellers: seniors see as important, the educational purposes and feelings of national identity related to sacred sites while these are less motivating for the young. The frequency of participating in religious …

Shrine Pilgrimage (Ziyārat) In Turco-Iranian Cultural Regions, Mehdi Ebadi

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Academic studies, dedicated to various aspects of religiously motivated travel have increased steadily, especially in recent years. Despite the huge amount of publications related to tourism and religious pilgrimage, there is still a gap between abstract theory and empirical research. Studies devoted to pilgrimage in the developing countries generally, and Islamic regions in particular are rather few in number in spite of its socio-economic importance and widespread practices. The present work tries to address this relative lack of attention and will shed more light on the tradition of shrine pilgrimage (known as ziyārat) in Turco-Iranian cultural milieu that is almost …

Religious Tourism And Italian Sacred Mounts: Experiences Of Networking And Co-Operation At A Unesco Site, Raffaella Afferni, Carla Ferrario

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

A Sacred Mount is a historical holy site and former pilgrimage attraction. It is a devotional complex located on a mountain, and composed of a series of chapels and shrines in which scenes from the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary or the saints are represented through paintings and sculptures. In 2003 the Sacred Mounts of Piedmont and Lombardy were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List being considered as representative of something that can be understood, in part, through visitor interactions with the areas in which they are located (see Di Giovine, 2009:208).

The visitors to Sacred Mounts are: …

Medieval Architectures For Religious Tourism And Hospitality Along The Pilgrimage Routes Of Northern Italy, Silvia Beltramo

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Sacred spaces are, and have always been, places of reception: hospitality is in fact a precept of God. Many biblical passages remind us of this, such as the one (Gen 18, 4-5) in which Abraham welcomes three guests, washes their feet and offers them a piece of bread and a place to rest under a tree. Saint Benedict too, in chapter 53 of the Rule, insisted on the need to honour pilgrims and travellers, who should be welcomed with a charitable service ready for devotion and stated that all guests who entered the monastery should be received as …

Religious Tourism Versus Secular Pilgrimage: The Basilica Of La Sagrada Família, Estela Marine-Roig

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In recent decades, the number of tourists visiting religious buildings of special cultural attraction, mainly due to their exceptional architecture, has significantly increased. In such cases, it is hard to discern whether it is a question of religious tourism or of so-called secular pilgrimage. This paper analyses this issue by means of a paradigmatic case study: The Basilica of La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Catalonia, a Roman Catholic church that receives over 3 million visitors a year; the part of the “unfinished cathedral”, built under the direction of Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, was registered in 2005 as a cultural site …

The Ceremony Of Tasua And Ashura As A Tourism Attractions In Iran (Case Study: Taft City), Amir Reza Khavarian, Mohammad Zare, Reza Mostofiolmamaleki Dr

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Today, tourism as a global and social phenomenon has special implication of its own. The mechanism behind the phenomenon intertwines and takes different forms in different times and places and completely different effects on the human beings (de freitas, 2003:47). There are many types of tourism. One of the most important tourism forms is religious tourism. Religious tourism is a combination of travel and religion. Most writers are taking into account religious tourism as a part of cultural tourism. Of course, both are quite different, but these two are tied together, and religion is a part of culture. Religious Cultural …

Sacral Landscape And Its Influence On The Tourism Space Development In The Region (Based On The Example Of Western Pomerania Region Nw Poland), Tomasz Duda

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Formed through the centuries, cultural landscape of the region includes not only the material realm in the form of numerous historical buildings, monuments and other evidences of local society’s development, but also significant immaterial realm, which manifests itself in the form of spiritual heritage, faith, tradition, customs and language. Interesting, often unique in terms of religious and historical point of view, religious buildings, as well as traditional pilgrimage routes and local shrines are now undeniable qualities, shaping the touristic space of the region. The study of the tourism movement and a detailed valuation analysis of sacred objects showed that the …

A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Weekend–Trips In Religious Tourism: Insights From Two Cultures, Two Countries (India And Italy), Kiran A. Shinde, Katia Rizello

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper explains peculiarities, significance, and universality of weekend-trips as significant form of religious tourism using a comparative analysis of this phenomenon in two pilgrimage sites from two different cultures (and countries), namely, Vrindavan in India and the Shrine of Santimissi Medici in Italy. The findings derived from a case-study approach and visitors’ survey method confirm that religious tourism falls under the more general category of leisure and that visitors who flock to these places on weekends do not coincide either with general models proposed in the extant literature, nor can they be assimilated to the conventional categories of pilgrims …

Book Reviews Volume 1, Carlos Fernandes

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

A selection of book reviews submitted to the Journal

Via Francigena Mountain Itineraries: The Case Of Piacenza Valleys, Stefania Cerutti, Ilaria Dioli

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religious tourism has experienced a strong growth in recent years. It represents a complex and articulate phenomenon, in which the reasons and proposals related to the devotional and personal sphere are combined with a series of innovative opportunities that help reach a depth knowledge of a territory. The religious motive often means that pilgrims travel along specific routes to visit a number of shrines or even to complete lengthy itineraries. Increasingly, purely religious motives are becoming mixed with more secular forms of religious tourism, which often centre around specific religious sites. In this perspective, faith itineraries can be interpreted as …

A Scalar Comparison Of Motivations And Expectations Of Experience Within The Religious Tourism Market, Daniel H. Olsen

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Academic studies on tourism market segmentation have decreased in scale over time, with the focus on tourist segmentation changing from segmenting the market as a whole to segmenting specific tourism niche markets. This change in scale can also be seen in how academics have attempted to segment the religious tourism market moving from discussions related to the pilgrim-tourist dichotomy to segmenting visitors based on religious affiliation to world regions and countries to specific religious activities such as religious festivals and infrastructural amenities such as hotels. In this paper the author, following Wall’s (1997) discussion of the spatial characteristics of tourist …

The Pilgrimage To The San Nicola Shrine In Bari And Its Impact, Katia Rizzello, Anna Trono

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage is defined as a journey to the Holy but more specifically as an inner journey to one’s deepest religious feelings. This type of journey has assumed new forms and types that bring it closer to modern tourism in general, though it maintains its distinctive characteristics, which will be the object of this paper. These changes in the nature of pilgrimage, which in part reflect the parallel socio-cultural transformation of the average visitor, have brought about a major reorganisation of the places involved and have had a significant socio-economic impact on the territories involved. The concentration of visitors and in …

Introducing The International Journal Of Religious Tourism And Pilgrimage

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Welcome and Introduction to the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage