Tourism: between Place and Performance - Assignment Example

Tourism: between Place and Performance Introduction There is no exact and unified definition of tourism because of its qualitative rather than quantitative nature but The World Tourism Organization has attempted to define it in quantitative terms. According to them, “Tourist is someone who travels outside their everyday environment and stays in the traveled places for more than 24 hours and less than one consecutive year” (Goeldner & Ritchie, pp. 26-48, 2006) (Coleman & Crang, pp. 12-15, 2002). Tourism is one of the most famous leisure time and entertainment activities that attract many people every year. According to the statistics of 2008, on paper, there were more than 922 million people who traveled as tourists all around the around. This number has increased to 1.7% than the previous year of 2007 (Raj & Morpeth, 2008). Despite the fact that this growth is not much as compared to the growth of the rest of the years in this decade but still it was considerable enough. Economic recession, security concerns, and swine flu were on top of these concerns. France is at the number one spot in the list of those countries who had the most number of international tourists, followed by United States, Spain and China. Interestingly, out of the 10 most visited countries by tourists in the year 2008, seven of them are European countries (Raj & Morpeth, 2008). However, these statistics show a different picture when it comes to expenditure those tourists do in their host countries. Surprisingly, United States has been able to earn 110 billion US dollars from their tourists in the year 2008, followed by Spain 61.6 billion US dollars, France 55.6 billion US dollars and Italy and 45.7 billion US dollars (Raj & Morpeth, 2008). Another list of countries that shows how much the country’s population has spend on tourism while traveling, puts the people of Germany at the top in this list, followed by Americans, Englishmen and the French people. In addition, Paris seems to be the most visited city on this planet attracting more than 15.6 visitors every year. Following Paris are London, Bangkok and Singapore (Raj & Morpeth, 2008). With doubts, Man is a social animal. He is programmed in such a way that he cannot resist his desire of exploration, search, experience, and investigation (Smith & Robinson, pp. 145-169, 2006). For this purpose, Humans, since the ancient known times, have been traveling to distant places. This traveling had so many unique purposes. Out of them, one of most fascinating ones has been “religious tourism.” This paper attempts to put light on its background, its nature, different elements associated with it and ends with a brief critical review on the same. Discussion History tells us that religious traveling is not at all a new phenomenon. In fact, it has been there since the time of oldest pieces of recorded history. Different people define religion in different terms. However, what is common amongst all these definitions that religion is something very passionate and its shapes your culture, traditions, approaches, way of thinking, lifestyle, attire and so many other things (Jafari, pp. 23-37, 2000). According to the estimates of year 2006, more than 320 million people go on pilgrimage locations every year. Noticeably, this makes up around more around 35-40 percent of total tourism (Leonard, pp. 45-71, 2006). Apart from all these statistics, a recent survey with random travelers also found out that almost one quarter of the travelers have shown their interest in taking up religious or spiritual vacation in the near future (Goeldner & Ritchie, pp. 26-48, 2006). In addition, there are more than 50000 churches all over the United States having some sort of religious travel program (Leonard, pp. 45-71, 2006). Another considerable point is the constant growth that this field of tourism has been witnessing. Despite the fact that the overall tourists market has seen a slow down pattern in growth, the same does not applies to the religious segment of tourism. One may argue at this stage that why it is so? (Coleman & Crang, pp. 12-15, 2002). Why despite the recession, the number of religiously motivated tourists has not decreased? This appears to be against our assumption of the west (if not the whole world) turning into a place of more sophisticated, rational, hardworking people living in a scientific, technological and modern world. If Church attendance is decreasing, than why are the visits to pilgrimage sites? However, the answer lies in the question. It has happened because of the fact that they are religiously motivated. When your motivation or inspiration is non-physical and coming from a strong source like your religion, then it becomes somewhat impossible to shake it (Leonard, pp. 45-71, 2006). Other tourists have their motivations in fun, entertainment, explorations, education, volunteerism, and wildlife, food, cultural or historical then there is a strong change that one will compromise it if his or her other resources are on stake (Smith & Robinson, pp. 145-169, 2006). Nevertheless, this is not the case with religious traveling. Almost all of the people who travel for religious and spiritual purposes are so much strongly motivated that nothing can come their way or in the way of their decision. The pleasure, comfort, and internal satisfaction they find during and after that traveling is some thing, they treasure more than money (Goeldner & Ritchie, pp. 26-48, 2006). In addition, it is also because that for the past few years the world has witnessed a rise in fundamentalism. Moreover, this is the reason why that now travel experts have started understanding its value and people are realizing the potential of this market. The phenomenon of attracting, retaining, and satisfying religious visitors has seen a significant boom during this decade and experts expect it to rise even further. Many mosques, mazars, churches, temples, churches, cathedrals, scared lakes, scared hills, and other scared buildings are now sources of revenue generation by the governments (Coleman & Crang, pp. 12-15, 2002). In fact, on March 17, 2009 the president of World Religious Travel Association, Kevin Wright urged the Middle East to put in their efforts for increasing the religious tourism. The religious tourism currently generates more than 18 billion US dollars for Middle East every year. Wright believes that the Middle Eastern has the potential to do it. In addition, India also seems to be an interesting and growing market for religious market. With a population of more than one billion people, it is a country where people have strong religious beliefs and they prefer sticking to it to death. The Guinness book of World records is also full of many strange records set up by many Indians that they have done in name of their religious traditions or sacrifices to please their God. It is also important here to note that these religious visits are not always for entirely spiritual and religious purposes. At times, these religious sites also have cultural and heritage attractions with them as well. Moreover, the interest in visiting a particular religious site may be because one may be interested in having an educational experience or wants to learn about the history of that place (Goeldner & Ritchie, pp. 26-48, 2006). Educating the family or children about the religion through a religious place can also be a reason. While studying the domain of religious tourism, any one would encounter four major problems. Firstly, it is regarding the dichotomy, distinction, and comparableness between pilgrim and a tourist. For years, people used to understand and view a tourist as someone who travels for fun and entertainment (Leonard, pp. 45-71, 2006). For those years, religious tourism was not even considered as a part of tourism. This was quite later when the World tourist organization came on to the scene to delete the element of motivation from the definition of a tourist (Smith & Robinson, pp. 145-169, 2006). Another problem exists with one group of experts who do not consider pilgrims as a unique type of tourists. They also do not accept the figures and statistics presented in the former sections of the paper. According to them, a considerable number of religious tourists would visit the scared place first and then enjoy the rest of the time on a beach or like a usual tourist (Coleman & Crang, pp. 12-15, 2002). That makes it difficult to come up with exact figures for religious tourists and other tourists. They argue that due to this phenomenon the numbers of religious tourists are high because of double counting with cultural and heritage tourism. The second important area is of the travel patterns and characteristics of the traveling. Religious traveling can be distinguished in terms of seasonal structure, long term or short-term journey, mode of transportation, number of participants, time consumed etc (Timothy & Olsen, pp. 56-87, 2006). In addition, there is always great deal of difference that can be noticed in the behavior of individuals when they are on religious trips. Thirdly, the hosts can get the financial benefits from religious tourists. In the past, cities with strategic religious places have used their geographical locations and scared buildings for rescuing their economy. Fights over Mecca are the biggest example. Lastly, there are also problems associated with religious tourism and most of them have aroused due to mass tourism (Timothy & Olsen, pp. 56-87, 2006). With so many people coming to a scared place each day and more importantly those people who have other than pure religious and spiritual expectations and intentions, it creates a complete disaster for the sanctity of that place. Examples are the Jebel Musa in Egypt and the scared places of Buddhists in Nepal and Tibet (Jack & Phipps, pp. 23-65, 2005). Not only mass tourism disturbs the locals of that place but also it changes that place from religiously sacred to a festival or cultural place. Atheists are the ones who have to say a great deal on the problems with religious tourism. Since they have no link with religious, spirituality, and religiosity, they view it as a waste of time. However, more importantly, they provide logical reasons for that. For them religious tourism is a waste of time and specially money not because religions does not exist, because they think that the same amount of time and money can be invested for the betterment of the society and help bring larger benefits for mankind (Smith & Robinson, pp. 145-169, 2006). Even moral philosophers, who strongly advocate the concept of ethics of care, seem to be of the same view. They usually give examples of Islamic countries. Now most of the Islamic countries on this planet are either underdeveloped or are developing nations. However, they all share their crisis (Jack & Phipps, pp. 23-65, 2005). Yet, every year the world witnesses thousands and thousands people coming for every year at Hajj in Mecca. With Muslims in so many countries dying for an opportunity of Hajj, this has given a chance to many frauds and cheats to make money. In addition, every year during Hajj, hundreds of people are injured due to huge number of people and other accidents. However, the argument is that very religion teaches unity, sustainability of society, helping of poor and brining equality in society. How would any religion that stresses the most on ethical principles and caring others would allow you to spend thousands of dollars on religious tourism with so many people dying out of hunger in your locality. Statistics show that if only the Muslims all around the around decide not to come on Hajj and donate the amount to a social service institution then that institution would be in a position to eradicate the educational problem of this world almost till 60-70 percent (Jack & Phipps, pp. 23-65, 2005). Conclusively, the paper has discussed some of the significant aspects of one of the major branches of tourism: religious tourism. It is an observation that the religious tourism has been able to maintain its importance since centuries, and it is anticipation that it will continue to do so for coming decades. It is an expectation that the paper will be beneficial for students, teachers, and professionals in better understanding of the topic. References Coleman, Simon, & Crang, Mike. (2002). Tourism: between place and performance. Berghahn Books. Goeldner, Charles R., & Ritchie, J. R. Brent (2006). Tourism: principles, practices, philosophies. John Wiley and Sons. Jack, Gavin, & Phipps, Alison M. (2005). Tourism and intercultural exchange: why tourism matters. Channel View Publications. Jafari, Jafar. (2000). Encyclopedia of tourism. Taylor & Francis. Leonard, Karen Isaksen. (2006). Immigrant Faiths: Transforming Religious Life in America. Rowman Altamira. Raj, Razaq, & Morpeth, Nigel D. (2008). Religious tourism and pilgrimage festivals management: an international perspective. CABI. Smith, Melanie K., & Robinson, Mike. (2006). Cultural tourism in a changing world: politics, participation and (re)presentation. Channel View Publications. Swatos, William H., & Tomasi, Luigi. (2002). From medieval pilgrimage to religious tourism: the social and cultural economics of piety. Praeger. Timothy, Dallen J., & Olsen, Daniel H. (2006). Tourism, religion, and spiritual journeys. Routledge. Read More