Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Experiences
Summary
Religious tourism and pilgrimage constitute a rich field of enquiry at the intersection of faith, culture and mobility. Pilgrimage traditionally involves journeys to sacred spaces for devotion, reflection and communal ritual, while religious tourism more broadly encompasses travel motivated by spiritual, cultural or heritage interests. Contemporary scholarship highlights shifts from strictly devotional practices towards more individualised, post-secular experiences, where wellness, heritage interpretation and self-transformation converge. Key themes include the negotiation of authenticity amid growing visitor numbers, the commodification of pilgrimage routes, and the use of digital media to shape spiritual destination image. Research also emphasises the need for sustainable management approaches that harmonise heritage preservation, community development and the diverse motivations of modern pilgrims and spiritual tourists.
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Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Experiences publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in religious tourism and pilgrimage experiences across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Pilgrimage: A journey undertaken to a site of religious or spiritual significance for purposes of devotion, reflection or transformation.
Religious tourism: Travel motivated primarily by religious or spiritual interests, encompassing visits to sacred sites and participation in rituals.
Spiritual destination image: Tourists’ perception and mental representation of a site’s spiritual qualities that influence travel decisions.
Virtual tour: An interactive digital simulation of a physical location that enables remote experiential engagement with a destination.
Motivational segmentation: The process of classifying tourists into distinct groups based on their underlying motivations and preferences.
Hierarchical framework: A structured model organising components of a phenomenon in ordered levels to reflect their relative importance.
References
- The role of spiritual destination image in mediating attachment to virtual tours and social media promotion on return visit intentions. International Journal of Data and Network Science (2024).
- Tourists and ‘philosophers’: Nature as a medium to consciousness and transcendence in spiritual tourism. Annals of Tourism Research (2023).
- Segmentation of Religious Tourism by Motivations: A Study of the Pilgrimage to the City of Mecca. Sustainability (2022).
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