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This paper aims to analyse the development of the pilgrimage phenomenon over the past few decades. Pilgrimage was the first tourism mobility to come into existence thousands of years ago. In recent decades, its significance has decreased, as other tourism segments have gained prominence. Although modern tourism is regarded as a relatively new phenomenon, its origins are clearly rooted in the age-old practice of pilgrimage. Indeed, the development of tourism is difficult to understand without a thorough comprehension of the practice of pilgrimage in ancient times.

This paper analyses the development of the pilgrimage phenomenon over the past few decades. The phenomenon of Pilgrimage Tourism and the nexus between the two mobilities has been experiencing tremendous changes over the past few decades and is still in the midst of an on-going process of transformation.

This paper concludes with the prediction that pilgrimage will re-emerge when the many similar segments – particularly, spiritual tourism, heritage tourism, religious tourism, dark tourism and secular pilgrimage – are re-identified as pilgrimage: a mobility for the search for meaning that contains an element of transformation that is often deep and enduring (as they were viewed at the dawn of humanity and for thousands of years).

This review has examined the development of pilgrimage tourism as a research topic, highlighting the importance of re-examining our contemporary usage of terms in order to allow for broader interpretations of different phenomena in the field of tourism. These conclusions are consistent with the current calls for a fundamental rethinking of the paradigms and the norms shaping scholarship on pilgrimage, dark tourism and tourism as a whole from a post-disciplinary perspective based on synthesis and synergy.

This study aims to extract information and analyze the antecedents of Muslims following pilgrimage tours. Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics Indonesia shows that 87.18 per cent of the total population of Indonesia are Muslims. In addition to running the ruling of Islam and the pillars of Faith, Muslims also maintain the religious tourism. The form of religious tourism which is widely followed by the Muslims of Indonesia is to follow a pilgrimage to the tomb of the wali (Guardian), both wali limo and wali songo.

This study used a qualitative approach. Data collection was done using in-depth interviews of Muslims in Indonesia who had already attended pilgrimages to wali limo and/or wali songo.

The tourists are satisfied and have an intention to revisit the destination, and the interest of the community to follow religious tours is very large, as well as the opportunities to do business in this sector are still wide open. Various motives and benefits of following religious tours, as well as suggestions for improvements for religious tourism destination managers, as well as advice for the government were uncovered. Thus, the results of this study are expected to provide a theoretical contribution related to marketing management in religious tourism and a practical contribution for the managers of religious tourism.

Further research can be done with a quantitative approach, as well as comparative studies between pilgrimages in Indonesia (developing countries) and pilgrimages in other developing countries or in developed countries can also be conducted.

For marketing practitioners, the results of this study can be used as a consideration to continue to improve services in the field of religious tourism in the country, given the potential for development is very large.

There is a contribution from this study to the development of marketing science, particularly related to marketing management on religious tourism services.

This study offers new insight regarding factors influencing Muslims pilgrimage tourism in Indonesia.

This paper aims to explore the ways in which religious tourism in India fosters religious tolerance.

The paper uses a conceptual apparatus derived from the basic structure of religious tourism comprising motivation, journey and destination, to understand various aspects of tolerance. Tolerance, with the implicit meaning of diversity and pluralism, is examined at two levels – intra-religion and inter-religion – using field investigations from three Hindu pilgrimage sites, namely, Vrindavan, Tuljapur, Shegaon and review of one Muslim site called Ajmer Sharif. These sites exhibit a range of combinations, sectarian traditions within Hindu and their interactions with others, including Muslims and foreigners.

Each of the sites provides different sets of opportunities for the “others” to get exposed to religious and cultural aspects. It is found that tolerance within the Hindu sects and with non-Hindus from other religious faiths is a function of their engagement with cultural performances and participation in the religious tourism economy in a pilgrimage site.

On a broader level, this paper argues that conceptualising tolerance within a social and cultural sphere helps in a better understanding of tolerance and identifying areas within religious tourism where it can be promoted. A conscious effort to promote tolerance through religious tourism will add value to religious tourism and help it thrive.

The purpose of the current study, besides describing the Khaled Nabi shrine and the reasons and motivations behind the visits to the shrine, is to elaborate its importance and meaning for the Turkmen community with regard to cultural identity in modern Iran. In addition, the possibilities of the classification of the visitors at the shrine, according to the tourist-pilgrim model will be also considered.

Because of the complexity of the tourism issues, for the collection of data for this research, the author has relied on both qualitative and qualitative methods, notably general observation, participant observation and in-depth interviews with key persons at the shrine. Furthermore, to get some insight in the general opinion, a total of 180 questionnaires that contained open- and close-ended questions have been distributed among Turkmen and non-Turkmen pilgrims/visitors in the age group of 18-80 years, of which 100 were completed. Therefore, observations were made for a whole week’s cycle to record variations during the same season.

Results of the study indicate that, because of the character of Khaled Nabi shrine, visitors with varieties of motivations like religious, semi-religious and secular, do visit Khaled Nabi and the shrine takes on a variety of functions for its visitors. The research specifies that drawing an exact line between the visitors proved to be improper. Therefore, to classify the visitors, the tourist-pilgrim continuum, being the most proper model, was applied. Accordingly, six categories of religious pilgrims, spiritual pilgrims/tourists, ecotourists, ethnic tourists, Turkmen cultural/historical tourists and non-Turkmen cultural/historical tourists have been created.

In regard to the research many problems also appeared. Perhaps the most difficult part was overcoming all sorts of practical and bureaucratic hurdles of doing research in Iran which can be quite challenging at times. It is even harder when the research is on ethnic or religious minorities, which is deemed – without exception – by the Iranian authorities “sensitive”. Consequently, for example, in practice, to not attract undesirable attention of the officials, the author, instead of putting direct questions, did it through participant observation or informal chats with the visitors.

Despite the huge amount of publications related to pilgrimage and tourism, there is still a gap between abstract theory and empirical research. Tending to be general in nature, the studies dedicated to specific geographical regions with their own unique history and environment are rather few. This lack of tourism studies is even greater when the study is related to zeyarat (religious motivated in the Islamic contexts) which, despite its importance and wide extended practice, has been mostly ignored in tourism and geographic literature. The present study features one such area that is (almost) unknown within the community of tourism and geography researchers.

The study investigates the mediated moderation impact of Memorable Religious Experience (MRE) and Religiosity (REL) on the relationship between Memorable Tourism Experience (MTE) and Attitude towards Pilgrimage (ATT) finally driving Recommend Intention (RCI) of visitors to a religious site. It suggests visitors' incentive variable religiosity can influence their decision to recommend visiting a religious destination.

The research uses a quantitative cross-sectional approach wherein a self-administered survey was used for data collection from 223 pilgrims who visited a popular pilgrimage site. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed for analysis.

The results showed that MTE has a significant influence on ATT which further influences RCI (a dimension of behavioral intention-BI) of visitors towards a religious destination. Further, MRE mediates the relationship between MTE and ATT. Nevertheless, REL illustrated a significant moderation influence on the relationship between MRE and ATT, further verifying the mediated moderation impact of MRE and REL in the model.

Recommendation of existing customers is one of the most powerful indicators of customer loyalty and usually leads to revisit. The research provides destination managers/tourism planners of pilgrimage sites to formulate appropriate marketing strategies to develop RCI and sustainable branding.

This study adds to the empirical studies conducted on REL by constructing a composite picture of the memorable tourism experience within a pilgrimage tourism context. The uniqueness lies in the attempt to investigate the mediated moderation impact of MRE and REL using a symmetric (PLS-SEM) approach.

Rapid urbanization and development of pilgrimage cities cause significant problems for the environment and society, leading to long-term challenges. Despite several discussions on city sustainability, the literature does not address some of the specific problems of pilgrimage cities. Hence, this study attempts at developing a method to examine the growth pattern and sustainability of pilgrimage cities in southern part of India.

The benchmarking method and the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability are considered to construct the Pilgrimage City Sustainability Index (PCSI). Appropriate variables and categories are identified through a literature review and expert opinion survey. The benchmark values of the variables are derived by contemplating the pilgrimage cities of Tamil Nadu, one of the states with the largest tourist arrivals in India. Subsequently, three prominent pilgrimage cities from Tamil Nadu were chosen for the case study and the method was tested.

The result reveals that the cities investigated are performing above average in the sustainability index, with slight variations in their dimension scores. While the category scores of cities assist in identifying macro-level issues, the variable scores provide an insight into micro-level issues. Furthermore, the gap analysis between the benchmark and the present value of each variable discloses the immediate area of attention in each city. Thus, the cities could set more specific targets, frame strategies and/or collaborate with matching cities to bridge these gaps.

This index assessment provides a comparison of the pros and cons of these pilgrimage cities and helps identify their demand and supply. Policymakers can find appropriate tools and approaches that aid in sustainable urban development and tourism management.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in emphasizing the application of the benchmarking method to assess the sustainability of Indian pilgrimage sites. With appropriate modifications, this method can be used in varied contexts across the globe.

The chapter presents the gospel festival as a significant postmodern religious tourism phenomenon which has not thus far been recognized or critically theorized. To date, conceptualizations of religious tourism, specifically pilgrimages, have been dominated by Turnerian concepts of liminality and communitas. It is suggested that these concepts, while valuable, do not sufficiently account for the heterogeneous and contested nature of these event spaces or their potentiality for the performance of alternative modes of social ordering. The Foucauldian notion of heterotopia is adapted as a more apposite theoretical framework and an example of a gospel festival in Australia is drawn on by way of explication.

India is the birthplace of four major religions which are Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. It is a country where people of all religions live in peace and harmony. Many tourists experience different forms of harassment during their pilgrimage journey, for example, fleecing, extortion of money, harassment by beggars, persistence by vendors and priests, fraud, sexual harassment, and other unacceptable behaviors. In order to appreciate the extent of harassment encountered by tourists, an in-depth study was conducted on the reviews provided by tourists on TripAdvisor's (Indian) website. This study characterizes harassments through ethnographic research approach of published reviews. A total of 260 reviews of 28 top Hindu temples are considered for all the states and union territories where the top Hindu pilgrim centers are located, (excluding Nagaland) according to TripAdvisor. The concerned reviews are categorized and further investigated through a primary data collection in proportion with the reviews received in respective temple sites in the study. through structural equation modeling (SEM). Important factors have been identified for future policy issues and recommendations in these most crowded places with unique mass tourism practices.

Religious tourism is one of the oldest and fastest-growing segments. This study analyzes religious tourism through the pilgrimage of Muslims to the holy city of Mecca and has the following objectives: (1) establish the motivational dimensions of religious tourism; (2) identify the motivational dimensions that predict the satisfaction of religious tourism and (3) determine the motivational dimensions that predict return, recommend and say positive things about religious tourism applied to the pilgrimage to a sacred city.

The sample consisted of Muslim pilgrims who had visited Mecca. The sample was collected in Bahrain, a country located on the Persian Gulf, where most of its population is Muslim. A total of 380 valid questionnaires were obtained online. For the data analysis, factorial analysis and the multiple regression method enter were performed.

The results show that religious motivations are more important when visiting a sacred city than secular ones. Three motivational dimensions were found: religious, social and cultural and shopping. The three dimensions found have a significant relationship with satisfaction and loyalty. Likewise, it was found that the religious motivational dimension is the factor that most predicts satisfaction and loyalty in the behavior of religious visits to a sacred city.

The main limitation of the present study was the temporality in which the sample was taken because the demand may vary at another time of the year and therefore vary its results.

The authors of the study recommend that holy cities increase the religious motivations of these travelers by periodically researching their needs and organizing services to suit their desired spiritual experience. Also, to improve the social and cultural part, travel agencies and tourist companies to Mecca should promote social and cultural motivation among travelers in an appropriate way by providing service packages that involve visits to cultural and social sites such as museums and cultural centers.

This research will serve as a management guide for public institutions and private companies to develop more efficient planning in religious destinations and sacred cities.

This study is the first to analyze the construct of motivations in the pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, to then establish what the main motivations are that predict satisfaction and loyalty in a religious city. Thus, its results provide important information for tourist destination managers and tourism service providers.

“Idol pilgrimage tour” is a popular trend among young Chinese fans who travel for idol-related purposes, engage in interactive events and have co-created experiences at destinations. With the growing market size of fan economy, fan tourists generate significant revenue for the local. However, many destinations have not fully utilised this opportunity, and there is a lack of research on this niche form of tourism. This research was undertaken to address this research gap.

This study adopted an idol worship–motivation–co-created experience–tour satisfaction–destination loyalty framework in the context of idol pilgrimage tours. In addition, this study investigated the direct influence of idol worship on the other four constructs. Data were collected from 354 Chinese fans who had such experience through online questionnaires. The partial least squares–structural equation modelling technique was used to examine the research model.

It was demonstrated that idol worship has a direct influence on motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty and that there is a positive relationship between motivation, co-created experience, satisfaction and loyalty. The results advance the brand sacralisation literature by studying worship in a tourism context and contribute to interactive marketing literature by clarifying the interactive mechanism between relationships among the idol, fans and destinations. The study suggests some practical implications for destination management organisations attempting to target tourist fans.

This is the first study introducing the concept of the idol pilgrimage tour. Empirical results of this study reveal the underlying mechanism of how idols influence fans' travel-related psychology and behaviour.