RESEARCH MYTHOLOGY

RELIGIOUS
TOURISM
TTT-262

Address By :
Sourav Singh
18BTT1069
Section -1
 INTRODUCTION

Religious tourism (often also referred to as spiritual and faith tourism) is one of the fastest
growing types of tourism in the world. The UNWTO estimates that 300-330 million tourists
visit the world’s major religious sites each year, which approximately 600 million national
and international religious journeys are added to (CBI, 2016).

Closely related to religious tourism is spiritual tourism that can be, but not necessarily, a part
of religious tourism (Rogers, 2007) . In a broad sense, religious tourism is any trip motivated,
either exclusively or partly, by religious reasons (Rinschede, 1992). As a growing
phenomenon, and due to the dynamics it generates in the host communities, religious tourism
has aroused interest among academics and businesspeople. For the former, the interest lies in
the study of the motivations, interests, and spiritual or cultural needs which religious centre
seem to have aroused (Abbate, 2013).

Why This Topic

It important to through some light on religious tourism .Because it is a most tourist attraction
sector .On a global scale, as an element of leisure time, every weekend and holiday, people
leave their homes in the city to go, even if for a few hours, to small rural towns that have
religious, historic, cultural or architectural appeal (vela, 2016). Religious tourism is one of
the earliest forms of tourism and is a fast growing market. Make a distinction between
worshippers and visitors as the religious sites cater for both as visitors and in roughly equal
amounts at some very special places like Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal (htt).

Importance of Pilgrimage Tourism

When thinking of religious tourism most communities tend to believe that this form of
tourism does not apply to their locale, unless they are a major pilgrimage destination.
Religious tourism, however, is not only destination oriented. It can also imply attracting large
segments of the market (Hohnholz, 1999).
  Pilgrimage Tourism is an economic activity that is imposed, or at least grafted, on a

pre-existing set of economic activities and traditional ways of life (harrison, 1996).

 International travel for the purposes of visiting sites, routes and festivals of religious
significance, as well as travel where the primary purpose of visit is to participate in activities
that have religious significance (such as conferences, conventions, retreats . . . camps, etc.)
(Mintel, 2012)

Challenges Faced By Religious Tourism

Pilgrims pay homage to the sacred places and their Gods by traveling around the world (or
even if just in the country) (Ghansiyal, 2019). Infringement of carrying capacity- Most
religious centers in the country, major or minor, suffer from short but intense seasons that
alter the dynamics of the region for the rest of the year (gupta, 2017). 

Waste Management- In part a derivative of the problem of carrying capacity, management

problem has aggravated as science and technology grew to usher us into the ‘era of plastic’
(GUPTA, 2017).Air pollution-The sheer volume of travel in this niche makes the figures
mind boggling. While trains still manage to absorb a majority of the travel volume, quite a
substantial number of major religious tourism sites in India are still only accessible by road or
foot, or a combination of the two (take the case of hilly regions) (Team, 2012).

Terrorism- While many terrorism incidents have impacted on tourism in general, the focus of this
paper is on religious tourism in particular, and evidence for the disruption of faith based travel is
visible in various countries around the world, often directly linked to attacks on sacred sites by
terrorists (2017).

Conclusion –Religious tourism is growing sector that increase the number of GDP growth.
Religious tourism motivates the coming pilgrimage and gives the new way to live the life.
People have faith in religion and it also increases the tourism market in India. If we talk about
why so many tourist visit pilgrimage site in all over the world, so the faith and believe that
visiting of worship help them to remove their sins and also good will of own and their family
life. But some problem that religious tourism faced in growth of visitor. For that government
have to take action and represent the religious tourism in country.
 References

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