Religious tourist's motivation for visiting religious sites

Abstract

In today’s secular world, the relationship between tourists and their belief plays a major part in influencing individuals visiting religious sites. The visitation patterns of pilgrims depend on the strength of their religious beliefs. In current literature, very limited research is available that explores the understanding and motivation of visitation patterns of religious tourists. In this study, religious tourist’s motivations for visiting pilgrimage sites are explored. In particular, this study attempts to discuss, through ethnographic research, how Muslim visitors are attracted to religious sites and what they seek for themselves from such visitations.