The Technological Power of Mysticism: A New Approach to Management of Religious Destinations

Introduction

Religious tourism has been the pioneering form of tourism as religious destinations have become not only a part of the cultural landscape but also a vital factor in local marketing since ancient times. Nowadays, religious tourism, dating back to the history of humanity, has become one of the major parts of many hosted destinations’ economies. Particularly, some religious centers that are important for all humanity, such as Mecca, Israel, Vatican create a huge financial transaction by attracting millions of religious tourists in the destination (TN Global Travel Industry News, 2014). According UNWTO 600 million national and international people visit holy places annually, also 300 million tourists visit the world’s major religious sites each year (CBI, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2018). And more than 50,000 religious organizations are serving pilgrims by organizing religious ceremonies and pilgrim journeys (Tala & Padurean, 2008).

Annually, about 13 million Muslims visit Mecca and two million visitors go abroad to Jerusalem. The Christian pilgrimage sites like Fátima (Portugal), Our Lady of Lourdes Sanctuary (France), St Peter’s Basilica, and the Vatican, the Basilica of St Francis and St Clare of Assisi (Italy) to Jasna Gora (Poland) attract millions of pilgrims and tourists (Heidari, et al., 2018). There are some important factors which are the main reasons why a large proportion of people have religious beliefs such as hope for the afterlife, superstitious and anthropomorphism nature of faiths, belief injustice. Also, children in many parts of the world legally have the same religion as their parents (Pepper, 2014).

The main motivation of religious tourists depends on their faith, as they also want to explore the historic roots, experience a unique culture, visit the world’s inspiring destinations, and simply have fun on their journey, religious tourism has significantly interacted with holiday, and cultural tourism (Rinschede, 1992). The cathedrals, synagogues, and mosques located all over the world attract visitors not only for religious but also for educational and cultural purposes (Woodward, 2004). Therefore, the motivation dimensions of religious tourists can be divided into two categories such as push (internal/intrinsic) factors and pull (external/extrinsic) factors (Dann, 1981).

Although travel for a religious purpose has existed in the history of humanity from ancient times, the motivation and the characteristics of religious tourism have changed over the millennia (Raj and Griffin 2015). That’s why the determination of what visitors expect from their experiences, what kind of experience visitors have (consume) at the site and what type of benefits visitors derive from their experience while leaving is becoming more essential for religious destinations (Smallman & Moore, 2010). Offering only good quality of service to consumers is not enough to manage destinations (Grung, 2016).

This study emphasizes the benefits and importance of the smart approach for the management of religious destinations by addressing two opposite issues such as technology and mysticism consists of two chapters. In the first chapter, the concept of religious tourism and the technological approach, which provides important benefits for the management of religious tourism destinations, have been examined. In the second chapter, IoT, QR&Mobile Apps and Gamification technologies and their utilization in religious tourism have been reviewed. The suggestions that significance the attributes to be considered while developing technology for the management of religious tourism destinations are presented in the conclusion part of the study.