Abstract

This book examines both specific issues and more general problems stemming from the interaction of religion, travel and tourism with hospitality and culture, as well as the implications for site management and interpretation. It explores the oldest form of religious tourism – pilgrimage – from its original form to the multiple spiritual and secular variations practised today, along with issues and conflicts arising from the collision of religion, politics and tourism. The volume considers the impact of tourism and tourist numbers on religious features, communities and phenomena, including the deliberate involvement of some religious agencies in tourism. It also addresses the ways in which religious beliefs and philosophies affect the behaviour and perceptions of tourists as well as hosts. The book illustrates how different faiths interact with tourism and the issues of catering for religious tourists of the major faiths, as well as managing the interaction between increasing numbers of secular tourists and pilgrims at religious sites.

There is a serious lack of understanding of the interconnectedness, operational and management issues of religious tourism. This book provides outstanding clarity on the conceptual aspects of religious tourism while debating the nexus and complications of politics, nationalism, emotion, obligation, belief and management challenges. This comprehensive volume will be a must-read for tourism and hospitality researchers.

This book reveals uncharted controversies and conflicts and moves beyond traditional academic approaches of ‘religious tourism’. It brilliantly explores political issues, fundamentalism, commercialization and sustainability using a tourism rather than religious lens. Butler and Suntikul do a wonderful job linking complex issues and exploring sacred sites, religious conflicts, tourism development and marketing through holistic and wider sustainability interpretation.

Richard Butler is Emeritus Professor of Tourism, University of Strathclyde, Scotland and Visiting Professor, NHTV University, The Netherlands. His research interests include tourism destination development, tourism in remote and insular areas, resilience and sustainability in tourism and tourism and politics.

Wantanee Suntikul is Assistant Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. Her research interests include heritage and tourism, politics and tourism, gastrodiplomacy and tourism and religion and tourism.

(This) book provides a comprehensive insight into the religion–tourism relationship in the present context, so the readers can see how tourism and religion interact from the past and present perspectives (...) It is a must-read for academics, practitioners and those who are interested in tourism, religion, religion tourism, the futures and relevant issues.

Contributors to Tourism and Religion raise soul-searching questions about the necessity for different and complementary foci on tourism and religion. Consequently, the result is a clear and invaluable comparative overview of evident problems and potentialities at sacred and secular sites. The detailed and exhaustive treatment in the case studies presented highlight good practices that can be applied to other similar contexts.

A welcome addition to existing works on religion and tourism. The editors have weaved a tourism-centric narrative around issues and conflicts arising between religion and tourism, as well as examining the rise of secular tourism within religious spaces. Essential reading for those interested in tourism, religion and their interconnections.

Butler and Suntikul provide a timely edited volume addressing the nexus of tourism, culture, heritage, and religion. Across the 19 chapters, the editors have lined up some of the most well-known and respected researchers on the topic...Libraries with collections focused on culture, religion, tourism, and anthropology should have a copy of this work.