religion affecting tourism

Religious Tourism: Exploring Experiences of Spirituality, Place Attachment, and Well-Being in Zimbabwe

• First Online: 30 September 2023

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• Ngoni C. Shereni 25 ,
• Sarudzai Mutana-Simango 26 &
• Munyaradzi Tiny Gango 26  

Part of the book series: Religion, Spirituality and Health: A Social Scientific Approach ((RELSPHE,volume 7))

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Recent discussions among tourism researchers have focused on travel for religious reasons. Growing evidence suggests that travelers are increasingly seeking true spiritual experiences in the areas they visit. In Southern Africa, religious tourism has contributed to the economic growth of various countries. However, relatively little research has been dedicated to spirituality, well-being, and religious tourism destinations in this region, both generally and more specifically in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter explores how the COVID-19 pandemic might contribute positively to the well-being of Zimbabweans who visit religious destinations. An interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to collect and analyze data from participants (n = 17) of various religious backgrounds. Overall, the results suggest that spiritually significant places have an important role in supporting well-being of religious Zimbabweans. However, there appears to be variation in the degree to which individual well-being is shaped by encounters with religious tourist destinations in Zimbabwe. The implications of these findings for the study and practice of tourism in post-COVID-19 Zimbabwe are discussed in the final section.

Author Note

Correspondence concerning this paper may be addressed to Ngoni Shereni: Department of Accounting and Finance Lupane State University Office 312 CBZ building Corner 5 street and 10th Avenue Bulawayo Zimbabwe. Email: [email protected]

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Shereni, N.C., Mutana-Simango, S., Gango, M.T. (2023). Religious Tourism: Exploring Experiences of Spirituality, Place Attachment, and Well-Being in Zimbabwe. In: Counted, V., Ramkissoon, H., Captari, L.E., Cowden, R.G. (eds) Place, Spirituality, and Well-Being. Religion, Spirituality and Health: A Social Scientific Approach, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39582-6_15

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Religious tourism, a catalyst for cultural understanding

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PR No. : PR 16090

Under the title ‘Religious Heritage and Tourism,’ Utrech in the Netherlands hosted a 2-day UNWTO Conference on 5-7 October to underline the potential of this segment to promote the growth of the sector while fostering cultural understanding. The Conference was held in cooperation with the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, the Museum Catharijneconvent, the Centre for Religious Art and Culture (Flanders) and the Dutch Future for Religious Heritage Program Future for Religious Heritage. 

“We suffer from deficits of different kind, being the lack of tolerance and understanding, a major one. Religious tourism is one of the driving forces to bring people from varied backgrounds together under a common cause: the admiration and protection of heritage of tangible and intangible nature,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai, at the inauguration of the event.

The issues of heritage conservation were a major topic of discussion, particularly in those cases where congestion constitutes a key challenge.

The Conference underlined the contribution of religious tourism to economic prosperity and the role of religious tourism as an added value to the offer of cities, villages and regions. In this respect, the event focused on developing methodologies to assess the social and economic impact of religious heritage tourism and strategies to develop these sites as authentic travel destinations. 

Other topics discussed included marketing strategies to improve access to information related to religious heritage tourism, the role of religious communities to promote religious heritage, the importance of investing in new technologies and capacity building and the role of historic commemorations in promoting religious tourism.

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Religious Tourism Studies: Evolution, Progress, and Future Prospects

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This review study examines evolving themes in the scholarly literature on religious tourism and identifies research gaps that provide a basis for future investigations. The researchers evaluate a total of 84 studies of religion-induced tourism using content and thematic analyses. The findings show a plurality of approaches, both disciplinary and interdisciplinary, that extend to diverse methods, themes, applications, geographical foci and manifestations of the phenomenon. Understandings of religious tourism have evolved beyond pilgrimage and now encompass the meaningfulness of a destination. Recent explorations have extended beyond visitor motivations to consider their identities, such as individual religious affiliations and religiosity. The current paper contributes to knowledge by embracing infrastructure and the activities which occur in and around religious places as a legitimate study domain.

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Tourism Review

Accueil Numéros 20 Tourism and Religion

Tourism and Religion

Texte intégral.

1 Religion and leisure are two social practices and movements that have become particularly important in the twenty-first century, The relationship between them is not univocal, nor even unambiguous, though after Nietzsche (for whom "God was dead") one might consider that leisure, as an expression of materialism, might either prevail religion, or erase it, invalidating it a relic obscure times from a bygone past. Quite the opposite seems to be happening.

2 First, we are witnessing a remarkable re-emergence of religion in the 21st century, after a 20th century which was marked by the secularization of society (republican secularism, communist and fascist ideologies ...), reminiscent of the 19th century with its "missions" of reconquest, internal and colonial, of a "Christianity" blunted by the Revolution, as in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the Reconquista (of the Iberian Peninsula) was followed by the Conquista of the Americas which became culturally Latin.

3 However, the 21st century return to the religious dimension is taking a form very different from what it may have been at peak times such as the Crusades, the Inquisition or the Jihad. In post-modernity (Jameson, 2007) where everything can take on a value (primarily that of a commodity), religions, even monotheisms, include a dimension which clearly brings them closer to the types of consumerism of which the dominant form of tourism, is one of its main aspects.

4 The relationship between tourism and religion discussed in this issue of Via is particularly complex and takes several hybrid forms, which means that it should not be examined from a binary perspective. These hybrid forms illuminate the borders, thought to be introductory (but are they always primary when pilgrimage is considered). The borders between these two phenomena are blurred even though they each ultimately abandon their specific identities. We propose to defer this question by examining what religion borrows from tourism and vice versa in order to understand how their mutual hybridizations confuse them, or even agitate them.

The Touristification of Religion

5 In addition, there are religious practices that are akin to tourism if we take, for example, the definition given by INSEE [The National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, France]. For this institute, tourism: “includes the activities carried out by people during their travels and stays in places located outside their usual environment for a consecutive period which does not exceed one year, for leisure or business purposes, and other reasons unrelated to the exercise of a remunerated activity in the place visited”.

6 First of all, religious buildings such as cathedrals, monasteries or chapels, synagogues, mosques, Protestant, Buddhist or other temples, whether they are sacred or desecrated, are objects of curiosity and visits which undoubtedly fall into the category of cultural tourism. This immediately raises the issue, for example, of what heritage should be preserved and whether it should be opened (or not) to the non-practicing public as well as the question of paying for visits to religious buildings. But religious events such as holidays (Christmas, Eid, etc.) and pilgrimages (those to Lourdes, Mecca, Qom, etc.) show a strong tendency to take on all the attributes of tourism and leisure. One could cite the Christmas markets which have spread to all the major cities of Europe. But places of pilgrimage, with their "temple merchants" as in Lourdes and their restaurants, their terraces, their luxury hotels, their hammams, like Mecca, have become "religious stations" having all the attributes of other touristic stations, though they do not have that status.

7 Of course, pilgrimages have always needed special logistics to transport, house and feed the faithful, but their recent massification, has caused a change of scale. Mecca, Lourdes, and Fatima receive millions of visitors every year. But it can reach tens of millions in other places. Every twelve years the Purna Kumbh Mela, or great Kumbh Mela, takes place in Prayag (India). In 2001, 70 million people moved along the banks of the Ganges in three weeks, 40 million of them in a single day. The record in this matter undoubtedly belongs to the Maha Kumbh Mela, which is held every 144 years, after twelve Purna Kumbh Mela. The last one took place in 2013 and hosted over 100 million people. Admittedly, the “clienteles” of these immense displacements of populations are not as uniform as their ritualistic attire suggests. But if these pilgrimages are massively popular, and in Hinduism it is obvious, they also continue to go upmarket to offer the most well-off believers, who have become VIPs, conditions of extraordinary comfort. Here we can see the appearance of a tourist gradient that goes from mass popular tourism (they sleep outside or in tents) to elitist luxury tourism, even very upscale (housed in palaces).

Religious opposition to tourism

8 While for religious people, tourism can pervert the behavior of the faithful, this does not prevent close encounters, sometimes very innovative, from developing at the instigation of religious.

9 Opposition to tourism seems to be a long-held mantra. Many places of prayer are closed to "layman" visitors in order to protect believers from invasive curiosity that could disrupt their meditation and the sacredness of the place. Any contact with tourists, even outside the walls, can be the subject of disapproving sermons. This has been the case since the end of the 19th century in Polynesia, where missionaries and the local pastors who succeeded them often denounce tourists as disbelievers bringing only profit and sexually transmitted diseases. Coupeurs de route [« highway executioners »], appointed by jihadist groups, kidnap tourists traveling in the Sahel or the Middle East. Messianic movements can do the same in the Andes. Although these kidnappings sometimes give rise to summary executions, most often they consist of hostage-taking, a form of commodification of a religious conviction, the release of hostages on payment of a ransom which fuels the religious movement. For these regions, which were often on the margins of tourism, this results in dangers which prevent tourism development as long as they lasts.

10 This is dramatic and highly publicized because the safety of travelers is "sacred" for the countries concerned. But it is also because, beyond the archaic situation, extremist religious movements (sometimes sectarian) propose to attack tourism as a device of a Western soft power which would would result in the desecration of traditional societies. Tourism is seen as a form of neocolonialism, which is attempting to import its commercial and social values in order to destabilize religion. This reasoning is in accord with a world deeply marked by glaring North-South inequalities, where tourism is seen as a form of voyeurism of the haves vis-à-vis poverty. Of course, if such tensions do exist, they are not unambiguous either. Western "tourists" may turn out to be propagators of a faith that conflicts with the established one. For example, in the Sahel evangelical missionaries were able to infiltrate with a simple tourist visa, in turn stirring up mistrust of all Western travelers. Thus, rumors, often more than the proven facts, could lead to real religious conflicts marked by assassinations.

The question of Cohabitation

11 There remains the question of a potential cohabitation between tourists ( a priori "passive" and "non-participatory" voyeurs) disrupting rituals and regenerating religions. The answers to this question range, as we have seen, from absolute prohibition (Mecca and Medina) to total integration. In political decision making, taking into account the economic fallout, but also the recognition that can be drawn from proselytizing media coverage, openness wins. The integration of a maximum number of participants in a territorial development project, if it is successful, leads to combining energies and propels, for example, pilgrims from Mecca to visit Saudi Arabia outside the strictly religious context (Alzahrani, 2014). But tourists are also seen as a disruptive element in certain ceremonies when they do not share the codes or the dogmas. For many monasteries of contemplative orders it is truly disquieting. Avoiding mixing with visitors can be considered essential to the serenity of a contemplation that is supposed to take place outside of the world. They will only welcome people (believers or not, by the way) making a retreat. In open spaces such control can be more difficult. The tourists coming to photograph cremations in India along the sacred rivers appear to be out of place in the eyes of the bereaved families. In addition to the fact that reciprocity does not exist, such behaviors (e.g taking selfies where we show ourselves, by making a "V" of victory in front of a gravepost) appear to express a contempt for the other, those whom we visit, who has the impression of seeing himself rendered as a mere curiosity. Such a feeling in the host country can lead to friction. Conversely, one could also argue that this craving for exoticism revalues a tradition that was sometimes on the decline: a ritual that arouses the curiosity of people from afar is proof of its importance. This validates it and helps to prolong it, even if it is distorted, like a folklore show.

Forms of Hybridization

12 Without taking any theoretical and conceptual risk, we could say that hybridization characterizes the tourism / religion relationship. Tourism is certainly a materialist phenomenon (experiencing an "earthly paradise" here below, for example) but ultimately also a form of paganism (the experience of the earthly paradise remains a belief that challenges monotheisms). It can appear as a new religion when it offers experiences such yoga courses in Ashrams, “healing” retreats in monasteries ... and conversely, religious practice increasingly borrows the logistics of tourism (travel agencies, air flights, hotel chains, standardized catering ... tourist regulations for travel). Thus the departure of jihadists to the Islamic State (IS) is recounted by enlisted men as akin, albeit with a few pretenses, to a tourist trip organized by a tour operator. Cults can sometimes be seen as genuine tourist destinations. We think of Yoga workshops in lamasseries in Nepal, then everywhere else in the world. Thus the mythic Mandaron, prototype of the eccentric syncretic sect, was conceived as a "holiday" village, even in its panoramic position, on the kitschy model of a theme park (Duval, 2002).

The tourist gradient

13 Religious phenomena among of the well-known central objects of cultural tourism. The encounter most often takes place “cold”, tourists visit sites and monuments which are no longer in use, or even desecrated, and sometimes it is then a question of reinterpreting their religious character. Examples include Mayan or Aztec pyramids, Polynesian marae but also Angkor Wat, mountains and other sacred hills. There are also "lukewarm" cases such as the monuments of Christianity which are visited more often (in Europe at least) when they are less frequented by the faithful or when they are neglected by their clergy. (monasteries where people go for retreats, the Camino of Santiago de Compostella).

14 Finally, the question of "hot" tourism arises when religion dominates public spaces (a prime example is the Western Wall). This leads to prohibitions on both sides. Non-Muslims are forbidden to enter mosques in Morocco or the Holy Places of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. They are also forbidden to visit ancient archaeological sites, still in Saudi Arabia, which would call into question the chronological doxa of the creation of the world, for the Muslim pilgrims of Mecca for example. A particular case that would merit a specific analysis is that of the Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral, which was both a place of worship and a major tourist site, whose fire in 2019 showed how it was a powerful symbol for many French, but ultimately for many people in the rest of the world ( Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo revised by Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame movie having played a major role in the imagery of its typicality). This resulted in donations to cover the costs of restoration, but also a questioning of the modality of the restoration while respecting the religious monument.

15 The complex relationships between these two prominent social phenomena of religion and tourism are not unequivocal. At first glance these two phenomena seem opposed, in purpose if not perhaps their dynamics. Tourism has been shattered for a time by the pandemic, but the revival of religious fundamentalism seems to have to be analyzed as a response to the materialism that tourism conveys. One promises paradise in the hereafter while the other offers it at the end of a pleasure trip. Also the reborn religious (revival) is defined among other things as a reaction to what tourism can mean in terms of the secularization of society, "misguided" mores, eroticization of behavior, or voyeurism of the intimate. The religious as "guardians" of "living tradition » can engineer to weaken tourism as a component of "materialistic" modernity (double negative of religious ideology). Even if things are not so clear-cut, however, because pilgrimage will be inspired in its move upmarket by the professionalism of tourist operators and the large groups to whom it will appeal. The fact remains that tourism, at its margins, is no longer all-conquering but is forced to fall back on its still secure positions. On the contrary, one "posture" (sometimes a ruse? think back to the discovery of Timbuktu or the trip of Alexandra David Neel) consists in traveling as a pilgrim (or disguised as a pilgrim) to continue exploring. the outskirts of the open world. This kind of touristic opportunity seems to shrink in the face of the rise of fundamentalism, presenting a lesser-known obstacle (Kassouha, 2018). By mingling, tourism and religion participate in the invention of a new hybrid form, which will perhaps become the predominant form of the still complicated relationship they maintain.

The contents of the Volume

16 This thematic number that Via devotes to this topic has found its justification. The many proposed articles that we have received show the great interest of the scientific sphere in this question. Even if they cannot answer all the questions, we see below that interesting points have been addressed, particularisms revealed, or ambivalences uncovered. The gradients from materialism to idealism, from secularization to fundamentalism are explored in this issue.

17 The article by Katerina Seraïdari, “The Baptistry of Lydia, Northern Greece : Religious Tourism, the place of the cult and the ritual events”, examines how this emblematic baptism (believed to be the first in Europe, because it was there, in the River of Philip, that St. Paul baptized Lydia, in 49-50 AD) was first celebrated in the 19th Century by the Greek elder, Lampakis : thus transforming the water of the Phillip River into a museological object. Then, after the church was built there, that which had not been located historically, was monumentalized and anchored in the soil! This case allows us to better understand the four principal parameters of religious tourism : the religious site, the personages, the objects and the events.

18 In his article “Religious tourism: an end to the oxymoron?” subtitled “Reflection on practices combining tourism and religious phenomena”, Marie-Hélène Chevrier notes that a certain "indeterminacy" remains in the definition and use of the expression in the scientific field. It therefore aims to clarify it and returns to the distinction between tourism and pilgrimage in order to deepen the idea of a continuum and "to grasp more precisely the contemporary evolutions of the tourism / religious dialectic".

19 Anne Ouallet, in “Tourism, heritage and Islam: Fez, the tourist pole and the Tijan pole” shows that Fez is both in the world circuit of world heritage sites and the beacon of the international circuit of Tijan networks. Two types of tourist flows thus converge on the city, each of them is part of its own itineraries and they respond to specific logics: the inclusion of Fez as a UNESCO World Heritage Site generates flows of non-profane tourists, not motivated a priori by religious belief, except to think that heritage has become one. At the same time, the Tijan sanctity of the city attracts individuals or groups, many of whom have wandered along the international routes of Islam and are part of a vast movement of religious tourism.

20 The article by Maria Adriana S. B. Teixeira, Lúcia Cláudia Barbosa Santos, and Maria Jacqueline Ramos Iwata, “ Turismo religioso em municípios do estado do Amazonas ” (“Religious tourism in the towns of Amazonas State”) deals with key religious aspects of three major tourism events religious in the State of Amazonas, Nossa Senhora do Carmo (Parintins), the feast of Santo Antônio de Borba (Borba) and that of Nossa Rainha do Rosário (Itapiranga). Their main characteristics are to maintain the religious traditions handed down from generation to generation, to strengthen devotion to the local patron saint and to promote relations between the people who participate in these festivals.

21 In “Cultural itineraries and religious heritage”, Isabelle Brianso shows that since 1987, the geographical traces (road, path, way) of the Middle Ages have been transformed into “Cultural itineraries certified by the Council of Europe”. They were once frequented by travelers and pilgrims from Europe, they now attract a diversity of walkers with heterogeneous profiles (inhabitant, walker-pilgrim, tourist-hiker) forming multi-communities with social, religious and heritage values. They therefore play a central role in the recognition of this cultural creation as a recent heritage category at the crossroads of cultural geography, landscape and communicational processes.

23 Nathalie Jarraud and Sylvie Clarimont wonder about “Lourdes, a hotspot for religious tourism, between crisis and transition?” The obsolescence of certain tourist places has been modeled by transposing the concept of the life-cycle of a product and this approach has been applied in Lourdes, a major place of religious tourism. The COVID 19 crisis, by shaking the Lourdes system, could accelerate the transformation of the destination and promote its transition. Even if the Sanctuary offers certain innovations, they are part of a logic of "adaptation-resilience" rather than a logic of transformation. For the moment, the crisis seems to have rather exacerbated the tensions among the actors that has stimulated a combining of energies around the common project, a transition towards more sustainable tourism.

24 In addition to these articles in the dossier, are two essays and two analyses of photographs. Michel Bonneau asks himself “When did the Christian pilgrim become a tourist?” He analyzes the evolution of pilgrims' behavior from the origins to the 15th century in the Holy Land. It tackles a theme rarely analyzed, that of pilgrim behavior vis-à-vis the secular world. The accounts available from the fourth century onwards show that the pilgrim gave no room to the secular world around him, turning entirely towards the sacred place to be reached. Behaviors gradually evolved from the 13th century and into the 14th century, with pilgrims becoming increasingly interested in the real world around them. The evolution was almost completed in the 15th century to the point that, during their travels to the Holy Land, pilgrims were keen to visit natural sites, beautiful landscapes, monuments and ruins, markets or emblematic high places recognized as wonders, like the Pyramids. The search for these "singularities" became the driving force behind the movement which is no longer made solely for the purposes of pilgrimage and salvation.

25 Salvatore Santuccio presents “ Il viaggio a Loreto: turismo religioso e turismo culturale ” (The trip to Loreto: religious tourism and cultural tourism). The Basilica of Loreto has been a pole of attraction for pilgrimages since the spread of the “Loreto tradition” which tells of the miraculous journey from the birthplace of Mary from Palestine to Loreto, accompanied in flight by some Angels. During its history, this important religious center has also become an important monument of Italian Renaissance art and architecture, one of the most important cultural centers in central Italy. This has contributed to the fame of the basilica and to the international interest of many researchers who are certainly attracted by the symbolic religious value of the remains of the building, but also by its artistic and historiographical content.

26 Moulay Salah Oumoudden and Rhaled Alzarhani also compare the two phenomena in “Religious tourism in Saudi Arabia : Between Pilgrimage and Consumerism ”. For Muslims, the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, is at the heart of religious tourism. It is considered one of the Five Pillars of Islam, with the obligation to perform once in their lifetime, for those who are physically and financially able to do so. Nearly two million people, coming from the four corners of the world, therefore go to Mecca every year, and the "Hajj ministry" supports the organization of pilgrimages to holy places for Muslim populations and also takes care counting the number of visitors.

27 Finally, Anthony Goreau-Ponceau presents and comments on “An entertaining pilgrimage?” The photos follow a group of women from Theni, a small town in the eastern state of Tamil Nadu, who left to go to the Arulmigu Adhiparasakthi Siddhar Peetam temple in Melmaruvathur. Their journey was made during the Irumudi Shakti Malai pilgrimage period, during which pilgrims - especially women - flock from all over Tamil Nadu to express their devotion to Amma ( Mahādevī or Adi Parashakti ), the mother goddess.

Bibliographie

Alzahrani, Kh. (2014), Du cultuel au culturel : le tourisme international en Arabie Saoudite , Thèse de l’université de Grenoble, UMR Pacte.

Duval, M. (2002), Un ethnologue au Mandarom : Enquête à l'intérieur d'une "secte" , PUF.

Jameson, F. (2007), Le Postmodernisme ou la logique culturelle du capitalisme tardif , Beaux-Arts de Paris, Ed originale 1991, Duke University Press,

Khasouha, Z. (2018), Le tourisme en Syrie, passé, présent, futur : entre résilience et réinvention , Thèse de l’université d’Avignon, UMR Espace-Dev.

Pour citer cet article

Référence électronique.

Philippe Bachimon et Hervé Thery , « Tourism and Religion », Via [En ligne], 20 | 2021, mis en ligne le 15 décembre 2021, consulté le 17 mai 2024. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/7949 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/viatourism.7949

Philippe Bachimon

Professeur émérite, Université d'Avignon

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Tourism in the Mediterranean Sea

ISBN : 978-1-80043-901-6 , eISBN : 978-1-80043-900-9

Publication date: 1 March 2021

Beginning with a historical outline and the definition of tourism as a privileged opportunity for physical and spiritual renewal, the author deals with the question of how young people put themselves in touch with religion and spirituality. After 2012, Catholic pastoral has changed: not only devotional attention to the pilgrimages but also an overview of the resources constituted by sacred places as a tool for socioeconomic and cultural development of destinations. Religious tourism means an appropriate moment to let the body relax and to nourish the spirit: from this approach, the author shows examples of ‘ religious light tourism’ in Europe founded on an ecumenical approach and on sustainability. The effects are positive: for the offer, new jobs (guides, resorts, enogastronomic and folkloristic services); for the demand, a new way to preserve the beauty of creation for future generations, by offering emotional and not massive travels: Caminos, trekking and slow paths, in order to know local traditions and nature. Therefore, ‘religious light tourism’ is a champion of sustainability and responsible tourism because religious tourism is, usually, less affected by season's trends, social and economic crisis (but not in the present COVID-19!).

• Religious light tourism
• Sustainability
• Responsible tourism
• Spirituality

Cugini, A. (2021), "Religious tourism and Sustainability: From Devotion to Spiritual Experience * ", Grasso, F. and Sergi, B.S. (Ed.) Tourism in the Mediterranean Sea , Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 55-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-900-920211006

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February 28, 2019

Peter Wiltshier

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Religious Tourism: What is it and why is it so important?

Religious tourism is one of the earliest forms of tourism and is a fast growing market. Here, Peter Wiltshier, Consultant Researcher Community & Tourism Development NZ at Research Consultancy NZ, New Zealand , explains what it is and why it is so important.

View to Jerusalem old city, Israel

What is religious tourism?

Religious tourism has taken place since the dawn of civilisation. Pilgrims travelled to pay homage to the sacred places and their guardians throughout the world. Tourism to sacred sites has merged with pilgrimage in the past 2,000 years. More recently, in the past 200 years wealthy Europeans visited special sites of sacred ritual in both the New World and throughout Europe.

Why is it so important?

Sites of special sacred significance have been visited for millennia. What is now important is that these sites need protection, conservation and interpretation. There are few guardians of these special places of worship and visitation and even fewer sources of funds to maintain and manage sites for visitors and worshippers. We do make a distinction between worshippers and visitors, as the religious sites cater for both in roughly equal amounts at some very special places like Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal.

Religious tourism in history

The management of religious tourism presents many challenges that are unique in both breadth and application. Sites of religious significance have existed since biblical times and pilgrimage in the Judeo-Christian context is mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible, for example, in the story of Elkanah, who travels annually to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice (1 Samuel 1:1-28). It is also present in the New Testament Pentecost story, when Jews from all over the world went to Jerusalem for the Passover (Acts 2: 1-12). Many of these sites still exist and other sites, although not as old, have considerable heritage value. The management of heritage sites present particular problems, one of which relates to the cost of maintenance.

Managing sites of religious tourism

Most religious sites are owned by religious organisations, and this may cause challenges for their management, as they must balance the needs of worshippers with those of their visitors. Mosques are at the centre of Islamic tourism and are visited by both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Muslims may visit mosques while travelling as a tourist attraction or as a place of worship. Many mosques have a dual role, functioning as both a place of worship and as a community centre. The role of community centre means that the mosque will be open for functions and festivities that are not strictly religious in nature and may include non-Muslims.

Muslim countries, such as those in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) welcome tourism, especially religious tourism. But they make a distinction between pilgrimage, the most well know being the Hajj, and other forms of religious tourism. While non-Muslims are welcome at sites such as mosques, they are not welcome at the Hajj. The Hajj is one of the most important forms of pilgrimage today with millions of Muslims travelling to Makkah (Mecca) in Saudi Arabia and, without question, the most important Muslim pilgrimage. It is therefore important to distinguish between Muslim travellers to Muslim sites and non-Muslim visitors to these sites. For example, it is not acceptable for non-Muslims to enter the region of Hejaz where the cities of Mecca and Medina are located. There is some conflict related to ‘ownership’ of these sites, and this is discussed below. Other religions have similar problems in relation to conflicting motivations.

Visitors and worshippers

One of the conflicts that has been noted is between visitors to religious sites and worshippers. While many visitors see worshippers as part of the experience, some worshippers do not like the feeling of being observed. Worshippers do not want to feel that they are part of a ‘show’, but are happy to share their religious space, and are proud of the architecture and history that attracts visitors to the site. Sacredness does not readily cross cultural boundaries. What is viewed as sacred by one group, such as congregants, may be seen as culturally interesting by another visitor group. Given that some visitors may wish to engage in worship, Church authorities may need to determine when a request to participate in a service should be accepted as an expression of genuine interest and/or intention.

Developing sites of special significance requires the dissemination and sharing of both intellectual and practical contributions to meet those needs in a planned and stakeholder-driven approach. Traditional approaches to development emerged half a century ago with a focus on core competencies and the agreed understanding that open and fair competition would raise quality and assure reasonable profit margins. It is important to create awareness of services and products and map those to marketing practices.

Analysis and synthesis through primary research enable cleric and manager to grasp visitors’ and worshippers’ needs and develop audiences for sites. In the book, we present the importance of maintenance and plans for developing sites to accommodate factors in both internal and external environments that acknowledge the requirement to remain competitive.

How can religious tourism sites stay competitive?

The importance of networks, grappling with the wider community and perhaps establishing a wider, even global, reach, is appraised as important. In seeking to tap into resources traditionally not employed in managing religious and pilgrimage sites, we elevate the need for an enterprise culture.

Our book features great practices for supporting tourism to sites of worship and pilgrimage from China and Nepal through to Salt Lake City, Australia and diverse but important sites in England, Hungary, Spain, and Ireland. Emerging practices in festival and event management at these sites are coupled with new interpretation through the use of virtual reality technology. Emerging good practices for emulation come with sites that are now employing funding managers prepared to manage the risks of increased visitation against the pressures to conserve and protect the ancient sites at the centre of the visitor experience.

This post also appears on the University of Derby blog .

Managing Religious Tourism is now available from the CABI Bookshop.

You might also be interested in reading From too many to too few: the impact of COVID-19 on overtourism

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Impact of religion on Tourism

09/10/2013 12:16

Source: Tourismembassy

Category: Tourismology by Tourismembassy

Impact of religion on tourism

Religion has over the years had great effects and impacts on tourism. This is due to the fact that religion has influenced the tourism scene in an outstanding manner. Notably, there are very many religious sites that also double as key tourist attraction sites. As such, it goes without saying that these two sectors are interrelated with each other as they are dependent of each other. One of the greatest things about religion is that it is very old. The history of religion dates back to   at least two thousand years ago. As such, the history of religion is quite important in that it constitutes a very important aspect of tourism; that of learning more about how religion has grown and developed over the years.

In tourism, there is a very exclusive sector referred to as religious tourism, one of the greatest pillars of tourism presently. Religious tourism can be best described as a unique type of tourism whereby people travel either individually or in groups to visit   different places for purposes such as missionary work or pilgrimage among other religious activities. For countries with deep roots in religion, this tourism edges out as the leading form of tourism. This is specifically the case in Jerusalem, one of the largest religious cities across the globe. This is a perfect example of the exceedingly great effects of religion on tourism.

The impacts of religion on tourism are quite diversified in that they affect tourism in so many ways. For starters, religious sites in countries like Italy and Rome are the main tourist attraction sites for the tourism sectors of these countries. These sites account for millions of tourists (both international and local tourists) through out the year. Some of the notable tourist religious sites in Italy are such as Torino, Pad ova and Pompeii among other sites. The   success of tourism and its subsequent growth is based on the existence of exclusive attraction sites that are bound to keep tourists coming back from time to time. Therefore, religion has gone a long way in the sustenance of tourism mainly due to the fact that it keeps the tourism sector active all year round.

Religious activities and festivities are yet other ways in which religion affects tourism. Visits by prominent religious people such as the pope opens a new and a very resourceful avenue of increasing tourism by a great margin. This is due to the reason that these people attract millions of people who go to see them and listen to them. As such, when the pope or any other prominent religious leader visits a specific location, it becomes quite easy for that place to enjoy increased tourism in both short and long terms. In countries that the pope has visited, the tourism sector in these countries increases by more than double fold as people travel from all over the world to see the pope.

Religious activities like the annual Muslim gathering in Mecca to stone Satan is also a clear indication of the massive effects of religion on tourism. The best thing about this annual event is that it brings together Muslims from allover the world to participate in the event. People from every corner of the world travel to Mecca thereby greatly boosting the city’s tourism by a great margin. The best thing about increase in tourism is that it tags along a wide range of other exclusive benefits that may include employment, increased revenue for the country and most importantly diversification of tourism activities.

Religion and tourism coexist mutually especially due to the fact that an increase in religious activities leads to a similar increase in tourism. This applies to both local and international tourism with the latter being the most favored. On an annual basis, it is estimated that the global religious tourism sector enjoys a flow of hundred millions of tourists from all across the globe. This is quite significant especially bearing in mind that the global tourism sector boasts of almost a billion tourists annually.

The impacts of religion on tourism are not overrated in any way. This is mainly due to the fact that the impacts have direct influences in the tourism sector. Therefore, religion constitutes a very important aspect about tourism; with the development of tourism been partially dependent on religion. This gets better due to the fact that the global tourism sector has been undergoing great changes recently; changes that aim at improving the tourism sector so as to provide top notch services. Religion cuts across Christianity, Islam and Hinduism among other forms of religion. Each of these sub-categories of religion has had great effects on tourism both individually and jointly with the other sub-categories.

Generally, religion has exceedingly great impacts on tourism with religion contributing greatly towards the growth and diversification of religion.

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The growth trajectory of religious tourism in key markets

Emerging Markets | Tourism

– Faith-based travel generates significant tourism revenue in key markets

– MENA countries are developing transport and cultural offerings to improve capacity

– Religious events represent key drivers of arrivals to some regions

– Technology can help improve connectivity and access to faith-based offerings

With many emerging markets diversifying their tourism offerings , faith-based tourism is set to become a key segment for a number of markets worldwide.

An estimated 330m people travel for religious reasons each year, according to the UN Word Tourism Organisation, forming a significant market for countries with attractions of spiritual or sacred value. These trips include pilgrimages as well as sightseeing trips to important historical and religious sites throughout the year. Additionally, a 2017 study reported that some 25% of travellers expressed interest in this form of tourism, whether for spiritual or non-spiritual reasons.

Global revenue from faith-based tourism is projected to total $15.1bn in 2023, according to market analysis firm Future Market Insights, and this figure could reach $41bn by 2033.

In addition to supporting job creation and local economies, religious tourism is helping to spur investment in logistics infrastructure, preservation and wider recreational offerings around the world.

Boosting connectivity

In areas that already experience sizeable inflows of religious tourists, new strategies and infrastructure projects are helping to prevent over-tourism while enabling capacity for growth.

In India, which boasts important sites for a number of faiths, religious tourism flows have reached record highs, with some tour companies registering growth 15% above pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels. Pilgrims include both domestic and foreign tourists, as well as those from the country’s significant diaspora population.

International arrivals to Saudi Arabia are currently driven by individuals participating in the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. The Kingdom hosted 17.3m international tourists in 2019. Of that number, an estimated 2.49m Muslims gathered in Makkah for the annual Hajj pilgrimage, marking what is thought to be the largest gathering of humans in history.

While numbers fell during the pandemic, they have since begun to recover, and some 1m people participated in 2022. Saudi Arabia aims to host 30m religious tourists in 2030, part of a wider goal to attract 100m domestic and international tourists annually in line with Saudi Vision 2030.

To improve the visitor experience and mitigate the undesirable effects of over-tourism, construction projects such as the $35bn redevelopment of King Abdulaziz International Airport aim to improve local capacity to accommodate arrivals. Slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2026, the expansion plans include a dedicated Hajj terminal.

The $16bn Makkah Metro project, meanwhile, will open four new metro lines to connect sites of religious importance in Makkah.

The Kingdom is working to promote the Umrah pilgrimage − which can be performed throughout the year – in an effort to mitigate overcrowding and other key issues. The Saudi Arabia Tourism and Research Centre estimates that foreign Umrah arrivals have tripled since 2005. Starting from mid-2022 visitors who receive a tourist visa through the country’s newly launched e-visa programme are allowed to perform the Umrah.

Other countries in MENA are engaged in the restoration and preservation of sites with historical and spiritual importance to the three Abrahamic religions, which could help boost international tourist arrivals. Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced last summer that it would renovate the town of Al Wadi in the Sinai Peninsula, home to the fortified monastery of Deir El Wadi which dates to the 6th century.

These developments come as part of a wider tourism initiative known as the Great Transfiguration Project, which aims to develop sites in the Sinai Peninsula to attract spiritual and recreational tourism to the area. First announced in 2020, plans include further development of the area around St Catherine’s Monastery to improve tourism offerings, as well as the operation of an international airport with flights to Cairo and Athens.

Meanwhile, Jordan’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has begun work on the first phase of a tourism trail from Mt Nebo to the Jordan Valley, which was first announced in 2021. The trail includes sites of spiritual significance for Christians, as well as adventure, cultural and medical offerings.

Regional resilience

Faith-based tourism represents a key driver of regional growth, with religious attractions responsible for a large portion of arrivals in certain markets, especially during pilgrimages and other festivals.

The Indian state of Gujarat, for example, saw tourist inflows reach 44.8m in 2017, with 36% of that number coming for spiritual purposes. India is also home to the Kumbh Mela, an important religious festival in Hinduism that is considered one of the largest religious gatherings globally. In 2019 the festival attracted 200m visitors to Uttar Pradesh State, with some 50m participating during the celebration’s most auspicious day.

Some states in Mexico, a top global performer in tourism, are targeting religious tourism as a strategic growth segment. The state of Jalisco, home to attractions such as the Cathedral Basilica of San Juan de los Lagos, ranks second behind Mexico City in terms of preferred destinations for religious tourists, attracting 11m arrivals each year and some $330m in tourism earnings.

Festivities surrounding patron saint days are key drivers of tourism revenue for hotels, restaurants and other local services. The Zapopan Religious Festival held on October 12, for example, attracts between 1m and 2m tourists to the region each year.

On a national scale, Mexico’s Ministry of Tourism estimates that 40m people a year participate in pilgrimages, generating close to MXN20bn ($1.12bn) in revenue.

In Brazil, another global centre for religious festivals, various states have established itineraries to drive visits to religious sites, such the churches of Ouro Preto in Minas Gerais, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The country hosts more than 200 religious events each year, including the procession of Círio de Nazaré in the city of Belém, Pará State, which was attended by 2.5m people in 2022. In 2019 religious tourism drew an estimated $15bn into Brazil’s economy.

Technological transformation

Mirroring the acceleration of digitalisation during the pandemic, technology is beginning to both support and influence the development of religious tourism.

Backed by TBO.com, a global travel distribution technology platform, Saudi Arabia-based Zamzam.com is an online travel agency platform dedicated to religious travel. The company specialises in Umrah travel services, including a range of offerings such as visas, flights and sightseeing packages.

In September 2022 Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Hajj and Umrah launched Nusuk, an official digital platform to facilitate the planning of visits to Makkah and Medina for religious purposes, in line with the Vision 2030 Pilgrim Experience Programme.

In early 2023 Saudi national telecom provider stc installed 92 broadcast towers in the Holy Mosque in Makkah, as well as seven communication towers over an area of 1.5m sq metres, part of efforts to boost the digital infrastructure in the city and provide greater connectivity to pilgrims.

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