Abstract
This exploratory ethnographic study aims to understand the visitation experience and to identify health hazards at pilgrimage sites in India. Specifically, this research aims to assess the tourism potential of holy Hindu temple sites located along well-known pilgrimage routes. During our fieldwork, we visited several of the most significant Hindu temples in India. Framed by a critical ethnography lens, our study used unstructured interviews with local stakeholders, as well as observations and reflexive notes. The findings revealed that most of the temples have serious safety, hygiene, accessibility, and environmental issues. A lack of action could lead to serious consequences for locals and tourists. For example, important for tourism, warnings of pandemics have been sounded over the years, and disease pandemics originating in India may only be a matter of time. We propose some immediate solutions and areas for future research.
Highlights
Religious travel has been undertaken since time immemorial and is one of the oldest forms of tourism (e.g., Collins-Kreiner 2016; Raj and Griffin 2015; Timothy and Olsen 2006)
Land, Judaists visit the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and Muslims travel to Mecca, while Hindus visit Varanasi’s Ghats (Shinde and Olsen 2020). This exploratory ethnographic study focuses on India, where pilgrimage is almost as old as Indian civilization, and the institution of pilgrimage to “tirtha-yatra” is an ancient and continuing religious tradition of the Hindus (Eck 2012; Singh 2004)
Warnings of pandemics have been sounded over the years (e.g., Gössling 2002; Hall 2006; Page and Yeoman 2007; Gössling et al 2020; Hall et al 2020)
Summary
Religious travel has been undertaken since time immemorial and is one of the oldest forms of tourism (e.g., Collins-Kreiner 2016; Raj and Griffin 2015; Timothy and Olsen 2006). Land, Judaists visit the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and Muslims travel to Mecca, while Hindus visit Varanasi’s Ghats (Shinde and Olsen 2020). This exploratory ethnographic study focuses on India, where pilgrimage is almost as old as Indian civilization, and the institution of pilgrimage to “tirtha-yatra” (holy places) is an ancient and continuing religious tradition of the Hindus (Eck 2012; Singh 2004). Millions of Hindus visit temples located along well-known pilgrimage routes, such as Char Dham and Chota Char Dham (e.g., Sati 2014). In 2012, the Amarnath Holy Cave was visited by 635,000 pilgrims, and the Badrinath temple had 985,000 visitors (Apollo 2017)
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