Visitors use and perception of information and communication technologies during visits to religious attractions in Romania

Abstract

Religious beliefs have inspired artistic masterpieces, like the frescoes of the medieval ages and enduring architectural structures. These sites have become attractions drawing tourists from both within and outside their places of location. With the advent of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), scholars have sought to know the implications they have for various forms of tourism. One strand of these researches is specifically directed to understand how visitors to these religious sites engage with information and communication technologies and how they integrate them with their religious experiences. One of the pioneer researches in this field was conducted by De Ascaniis, Mutangela and Cantoni through a survey of visitors to the Holy House of Loreto in Italy. The present research is built on the foundation laid by these scholars. The main aim was to assess visitors' use and perception of information and communication technologies during their visits to three important religious sites in Romania - The Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral, The Cernica Monastery and the Stavropoleos Church. A cross sectional survey was conducted on one hundred visitors to the sites who were selected using convenience sampling. The data collected showed that the use of ICTs in religious tourism is more favourable to the tourism experience than the religious experience. The call was made for further researches to interrogate the nature of the integration of ICTs in the religious experience of the tourists.