The Effect of Religious Affiliation on Nation/Place Image

Abstract

Tourism industry is related to food and beverage, transportation, accommodation and many more fields. For this reason, tourism marketing is gaining importance all over the world. Most of the fastest growing tourism countries' promotion activities are increasingly raising the popularity and importance of these countries. Tourism has an important role in the development of countries as a service industry and a multi-faceted concept. Hence, tourism activities currently have gained new forms, new insights and new methods. One of them are faith or pilgrimage based tours. Today, for travels especially made for cultural purpose, religion is one of the leading factors. For example, Benares in Brahman, Mecca and Madinah in Islam, Jerusalem and Ephesus in Christianity are religious places attracted many of tourists due to the pilgrimage. This major movements of migration making for religious purposes affect regions, countries and destinations in terms of the economic and social aspects. This situation creates economic opportunities for countries which have consistently balance of payments deficit. In addition to this, religious trips impress people spiritually, physically, mentally, socially and emotionally. Therefore, people visit the holy places of the faith they belong. For this reason, faith activities in different parts of the world attracted millions of people annually. Among them religious buildings, rituals, festivals, spiritual and religious events are important factors that affect the behaviour of tourists and directs people to faith tourism.