The international journal of tourism research tập 13, số 06, 2011 11 + 12

Similar to drama attendees, visitors who attend dance theatre productions/shows are more motivated by Festival productions at Aardklop.. Signifi cantly more tickets are also purchased by

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The purpose of this study was to

distinguish between genre supporters and

non-genre supporters at the Aardklop

National Arts Festival This was done to

determine genre supporters’ individual

needs and wants so that effective marketing

strategies can be developed and the festival

programme can be designed to attract more

genre supporters Previous research

indicated that the future of festivals is

dependent on the number of show tickets

sold and festivals therefore need to attract

more genre supporters To achieve this goal,

a questionnaire survey (N = 495) was

conducted, where afterwards independent

t-tests were used to determine the

differences between visitors who attend the

different ticketed shows/productions and

those who do not Results showed that

genre attendees and non-attendees differ

signifi cantly based on socio-demographic

and behaviour characteristics, which gave a

comprehensive profi le of the two types of

visitors at the festival This method proved

to be successful especially in increasing

ticket sales Marketing and management

implications for effectively targeting genre

2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: genre segmentation; t-test

analysis; festivals; market profi le

Received 4 November 2009; Revised 18 September 2010; Accepted 11 October 2010

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this research is to determine

whether there are signifi cant differences between visitors who attend the differ-ent types of shows/productions (genres) at the Aardklop National Arts Festival (hereafter referred to as Aardklop) and those that do not This will be done for the following two reasons:

fi rst, launched in 1998, Aardklop is one of three largest South African arts festivals It is held annually in the town of Potchefstroom, situ-ated in the North West Province The aim of the festival is preserving and enhancing the Afrikaans language and culture, as well as to meet the need for an arts festival in the north-ern part of the country (Van Heerden, 2003, pp 11–12; Van Zyl and Strydom, 2007, p 127) Second, from an economic point of view, an estimated 100 000 people visit the festival annually over fi ve days in September, generat-ing over R46 million in 2008 for the region

(Kruger et al., 2008, p 29).

According to Quinn (2006, p 288), festivals such as Aardklop can provide an effective vehicle for sustainable tourism as it reduces seasonality by extending the tourist season (Nicholson and Pearce, 2000, p 237) The latter

is especially important in a country such as South Africa, where the growth and diversity

in festivals creates high levels of competition

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCH

Int J Tourism Res 13, 511–526 (2011)

Published online 30 November 2010 in Wiley Online Library

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.818

Segmentation by Genres: the Case of the Aardklop National Arts Festival

Martinette Kruger1,*, Melville Saayman1 and Suria Ellis2

1 Institute for Tourism and Leisure Studies, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

2 Statistical Consultation Service, North West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa

*Correspondence to: M Kruger, Institute for Tourism and

Leisure Studies, School for Business Management,

North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus), Private Bag

X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa.

E-mail: 13018493@nwu.ac.za

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512 M Kruger, M Saayman and S Ellis

(Nicholson and Pearce, 2000) However, the

ticket sales in 2008 show a slight decline (see

Figure 1) compared with previous years,

indi-cating that Aardklop is moving into the decline

phase of its product life cycle This has a serious

impact on the future profi tability and

sustain-ability of festivals in the country (Le Grange,

2003, p 56) Koc and Altinay (2007, p 228), Lee

and Beeler (2009, p 17) and Uys (2003, p 13)

stated that developing and sustaining

com-petitive advantage in comcom-petitive tourism

(festival) markets largely depends upon

under-standing visitors in terms of who buys what,

when, why, where and how through the process

of market segmentation According to Kruger

(2009, p 3), to sustain the nature of the festival

it is important to identify and attract the

visi-tors who attend ticketed productions/shows

since these visitors stay longer and spend more

than those who do not (Thrane, 2002, p 281;

Saayman and Saayman, 2006, p 220; Kruger et

al., 2008) To achieve the aim of this research,

the article is structured in the following

manner: a literature review is followed by a

description of the survey and a discussion of

the results and, fi nally, the implications and the

conclusions

LITERATURE REVIEW

Market segmentation is widely considered to

be at the very heart of marketing (Morgan and

Pritchard, 2001, p 153) and an indication that markets and the individuals who make up such markets, are not homogenous and there-fore, no single market offering will satisfy all individuals (Cooper and Wahab, 2001, p 88;

Dibb et al., 2001, p 205; Fill, 2006`, p 329; Cook

et al., 2010, p 39; Tkaczynski and

Rundle-Thiele, 2010, p 6) Morgan and Pritchard (2001,

p 153) and Thompson and Schofi eld (2009, p 1) add that market segmentation maximizes market demand by directing marketing efforts

at what is regarded as economically signifi cant groups of visitors Added benefi ts of market segmentation include an ability to predict visitor behaviour, an improved ability to iden-tify and exploit new market opportunities for commercial benefi t, and more focused ideas

for product development (Heok et al., 1996; Jang et al., 2002, p 20; Middleton et al., 2009, p

98) Segmentation further enables marketers to avoid direct competition in an increasingly crowded marketplace because it provides opportunities to distinguish their particular product (festival), perhaps on the basis of price, but more often through styling, promotional appeal and festival programme/packages

(Morgan and Pritchard, 2001, p 153; Cook et al., 2010, p 40) The process therefore allows

for easier choices about the most appropriate visitors to serve, and making the best of limited resources (Dibb and Simkin, 2001, p 609; Hoyle, 2002, p 178)

Figure 1: Porduct lifecycle measured in ticket sales

Source: Kruger, Saayman & Saayman 2008:26

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Segmentation by Genre 513

DOI: 10.1002/jtr

According to research undertaken by

May-fi eld and Crompton (1995), festival organizers

do not undertake thorough visitor-orientated

research, believing in their own ability to know

what their visitors want, or are lacking in the

resources to do research Frisby and Getz (1989,

p 7) warn that all tourism products, including

events/festivals, go through successive stages

of growth, and therefore their programme/

product must also respond to changes in

demand It is, according to Mayfi eld and

Crompton (1995), crucial to know and

under-stand the underlying desires of the visitors to

attend a festival or event, if the festival

pro-gramme is to meet their needs and wants With

market segmentation, changes can be

deter-mined and this will assist festival marketers

and organizers in selecting the right target

market and providing a relevant programme

(Jang et al., 2002, p 19) The more detailed the

knowledge of each visitor, the closer the

festi-val marketers can get to a customized offering

that creates greater satisfaction and long-term

visitor relationships (Ali-Knight et al., 2004, p

136)

According to Jang et al (2002, p 19), one of

the most common ways of identifying the right

target market is to profi le the segments of

the total market, as profi ling helps by

distin-guishing the attitudes, behaviours,

socio-demographics, travel planning patterns and

trip-related characteristics of travel market

segments Researchers have experimented

with a wide range of market segmentation

applications in an effort to defi ne or profi le

their target markets (Hsu and Crotts, 2006, p

280) The most popular variables or bases for

visitor segmentation include the geographic

(nations, states, provinces, regions, counties,

cities or neighbourhoods), demographic (age,

language, family size, family life cycle, gender,

religion, race, generation and nationality),

socio-economic (income, education,

occupa-tion, and social class), psychographics

(psy-chological/personality traits, lifestyle, travel

motivation or values) and behavioural

charac-teristics (occasions, benefi ts, user status, usage

rate, loyalty status, buyer readiness stage,

atti-tude and visitor expenditure) (Mouthinho and

Witt, 1994, p 306; Dibb and Simkin, 1996, p 14;

Youell, 1996, p 138; Kara and Kaynak, 1997, p

873; Burke and Resnick, 2000, p 41; Cooper

and Wahab, 2001, p 89; Horner and Swarbrooke,

2001, p 159; Armstrong and Kotler, 2005, p 54;

Fill, 2006, p 329; Hanlan et al., 2006, p 17;

Bothma and Burgess, 2007, p 37; Page and

Connell, 2009, pp 94–97; Cook et al., 2010, pp

38–44)

Although these variables have been mended as viable segmentation bases, research-ers seem to agree that there is no single ideal segmentation base that fi ts every situation

recom-(Jang et al., 2002, p 367; Morrison, 2002) Authors such as Morrison et al (1996), Loker and Perdue (1992) as well as Jang et al (2002,

p 367) have suggested that behaviour or benefi t segmentation is one of the best segmen-tation variables The rationale behind this seg-mentation approach is that benefi ts sought by visitors are the fundamental reasons for the existence of true market segments and they determine the visitor’s behaviour much more accurately than do other descriptive variables such as demographic and geographic charac-teristics It is therefore suggested that behav-iour segmentation is used in combination with other socio-demographic and geographic vari-ables Frochot and Morrison (2000) and Ahmed

et al (1998) furthermore argue that benefi t

seg-mentation is most helpful in designing and modifying facilities and attractions, vacation (festival) packaging, activity (festival) pro-gramming and service quality measurement.One of the most important behaviours of fes-tino’s is the number of tickets purchased as well as the type of shows/productions (genres) attended The reason being that research by

Kruger (2009) and Kruger et al (2009) revealed

that ticket sales and the genres attended can be used as an indicator of visitor interest in a fes-tival and how successfully the programme addresses and fulfi ls visitors’ needs Ticket sales are also directly linked to the product life cycle of the festival (as shown in Figure 1) and are furthermore the festivals’ primary source

of income Therefore, it is crucial for the val to sustain its growth in ticket sales by attracting more genre supporters since these

festi-‘festival junkies’ seem to be the most viable and profi table target market (Saayman and Saayman, 2006, pp 218–219; Kruger, 2009).Based on this, Figure 2 illustrates that there are two possible types of visitor attending the festival: those that buy tickets (ticket show

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visitors) and those that only attend free shows

(non-ticket show visitors) The ticket show

visitors attend a variety of shows/productions

at the festival and therefore contribute greatly

to the sustainability of the festival The

non-ticket show attendees, on the other hand, are

limited in terms of what is free — which are

mostly music shows From a marketing point

of view, it is important for the festival

market-ers/organizers to keep the main aim of the

festival (to preserve and enhance the Afrikaans

language and culture) in mind when targeting

these visitors Considering the latter as well as

the importance of increasing ticket sales, this

study has three research questions: (i) is there

a difference between the profi les of ticketed

show visitors and non-ticketed visitors; (ii)

what are the differences; and (iii) how does this

impact on the festival organizers?

METHOD OF RESEARCH

For the purpose of this article, the data obtained

in 2008 will be used The method of research

used will be discussed under the following

headings: (i) the questionnaire and (ii) data analysis

The questionnaire

The questionnaire used to survey visitors to Aardklop in 2008 consisted of four sections Section A captured demographic details (gender, home language, age, occupation, home province and preferred accommodation)

as well as spending behaviour (number of persons paid for, length of stay and expendi-ture of visitors on different spending compo-nents) The spending questions were detailed

by spending category, including tion, shows, food and beverages, shopping, recreation and transport Section B captured all the information with regard to the festival (type of shows at the festival, the number of tickets bought, other festivals attended and the number of years attended), while Section C focused on the visitors’ specifi c motivations for attending Aardklop, as well as the preferred type of accommodation and media Similar to the spending questions, the type of shows

accommoda-Figure 2 Event/Arts festival markets

Event/ Arts Festival

Ticketed show visitors Non-ticketed show visitors

Attend a variety of genres:

Contributes highly to the sustainability of the festival

Small contribution to the sustainability of the festival

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DOI: 10.1002/jtr

(genres) at the festival were also categorized

and included: drama, dance theatre, word art

and poetry, children’s theatre, theatre

discus-sions, music theatre and cabaret, choir and

ensemble, rock, visual arts and exhibitions and

comedy Section D measured the respondents’

evaluation of certain aspects of the festival For

the purpose of this article, the information

obtained from sections A, B and C was

pre-dominantly used In total, 495 questionnaires

were completed over a period of fi ve days (30

September to 3 October 2008) by means of

availability sampling According to Cooper

and Emory (1995, p 207), for any population

of 100 000 (N), the recommended sample size

(S) is 384 Because a total of 55 518 visitor groups

attended Aardklop in 2008 (Kruger et al., 2008,

p 27), the number of completed questionnaires

is greater than the required number of

ques-tionnaires All questionnaires were completed

at the Main Festival Grounds and various

venues in Potchefstroom, where fi eldworkers

moved around to minimize bias Microsoft©

Excel© (Microsoft Offi ce Professional by

Microsoft) was used for data capturing

Most questions have multiple choice

responses or were answered on a fi ve-point

Likert scale The socio-demographic and

behavioural determinants used in the analysis

are described in Table 1 Section C of the

ques-tionnaire measured visitor’s motives to attend

Aardklop Nineteen items were measured in

the motivation section on a fi ve-point Likert

scale and respondents were asked to indicate

how important they considered each item on

the scale (1 = not at all important; 2 = less

important; 3 = important; 4 = very important;

and 5 = extremely important) The motivation

factors, as indicated by Kruger et al (2009),

included in the t-test analysis are also

dis-played in Table 1 below Factor scores were

calculated as the average of all items

contribut-ing to a specifi c factor, and results indicated

that Escape was the most important motive for

visitors to attend Aardklop This was

consis-tent with research done by Lee et al (2004, p

66) and De Guzman et al (2006, p 864–865)

This was followed by Festival productions/shows

and Festival attractiveness Family togetherness

and Exploration received the lowest mean

scores and were therefore not central motives

to attend the festival (Kruger et al., 2009).

Statistical analysis

The analysis of data in this study consisted of two stages First, a general profi le of visitors to Aardklop was compiled with the help of SPSS

(SPSS Inc., 2007) Second, independent t-tests

were used to compare the mean scores between visitors who attend ticketed productions/shows and those who do not Each genre was compared separately to determine whether there are statistically signifi cant differences between show attendees and non-show attend-ees in terms of demographical variables (age)

as well as behavioural variables (group size, number of people paid for, length of stay, number of tickets bought, free shows attended, expenditure per person, other festivals attended and travel motives, as indicated in

Table 1) Cohen’s d values were also calculated

as a measure of the effect size as this will provide an indication of the magnitude of the differences between the two groups Guide-lines for interpretation of the effect size are

d = 0.2 indicates a small effect, d = 0.5 indicates a medium effect and d = 0.8 indicates

a large effect (Steyn, 2009)

RESULTSThe results will be discussed in two sections First, an overview of the profi le of visitors to the Aardklop National Arts Festival will be

presented Second, the results of the t-test will

be discussed separately for each genre

Visitor profi le to Aardklop National Arts Festival

Based on the results captured and displayed in Table 2, more visitors are female, predomi-nantly Afrikaans-speaking, with an average age of approximately 41 years and they origi-nate mainly from Gauteng and North West provinces Furthermore, the largest group of visitors are in a professional occupation; on average, are fi nancially responsible for approx-imately two persons during their visit and stay

an average of approximately three days and three nights in Potchefstroom Visitors pur-chase an average of fi ve tickets and mostly attend comedy, drama and music theatre and cabaret productions Visitors are loyal to the

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Table 1 Questions used and their descriptions

Behavioural

characteristics

Group sizeNumber of people paid forNumber of days

Number of nightsNumber of visits to KKNKNumber of free shows attended

Open questionOpen questionOpen questionOpen questionOpen questionOpen question

Group sizePeople paid forDays

NightsYears attendedFree shows

Travel motives Factor 1: Festival productions / shows

Quality productionsVariety of productionsTicket prices are reasonable

Five-point Likert Scale

Festival productions

Factor 2: Family togetherness

To the benefi t of my children

To buy arts

To spend time with family

Family togetherness

Factor 3: Exploration

To explore the environment

To meet new peopleAardklop is different to other festivals

Exploration

Factor 4: Escape

To relax

To get away from my routine

To spend time with friendsSociable festival

Escape

Factor 5: Festival attractiveness

To support the food stalls

To support the stalls

To see well-known performers

It is primarily an Afrikaans festival

It is an annual commitment

It is the closest festival for me

Festival attractiveness

Table 2 Aardklop visitor profi le 2008

Province of residence Gauteng (43%) and North West (32%) Provinces

Number of tickets bough Average of 5.2 tickets

Most popular shows attended Comedy (48%); Drama (44%) and Music theatre and Cabaret (40%)Number of days Average of 3.10 days in Potchefstroom

Number of nights Average of 3.25 nights in Potchefstroom

Number of people paid for Average of 2.31 persons

Expenditure per group* R2799.97

Number of visits to festival Average of 4.26 times

* Expenditure per group was calculated by adding the spending of the respondent on the various components asked, and subtracting transport cost to the festival from the value obtained, since the inclusion of transport cost would automatically cause a bias for visitors further away from Potchefstroom.

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festival, indicating that they have visited

Aard-klop an average of four times

Results from the independent t-test

Independent t-tests were done for each genre

to determine whether there are signifi cant

differences between the visitors who attend a

specifi c genre against those who do not

The signifi cant results for each genre will be

discussed separately in this section

Drama As shown in Table 3, there is a signifi

-cant difference between drama attendees and

non-drama attendees based on age, number of

days spent in Potchefstroom, number of tickets

bought, number of years attended, some of the

travel motives and spending per person

Drama attendees are considerably older (an

average of 46 years) and purchase signifi cantly

more tickets (an average of 8) compared with

non-drama attendees (who are an average of

38 years old and only buy an average of fi ve

tickets) Furthermore, they stay longer at the

festival (an average of 3.3 days) and spend

noticeably more per person (R1674.71

com-pared with R944.37) It is also clear that

attend-ees are loyal visitors and have attended the

festival an average of 4.6 times Attendees and

non-attendees also differ signifi cantly based

on travel motives Drama attendees are more

motivated by the Festival productions and are

therefore more likely to attend productions/shows at the festival, while non-drama attend-

ees are motivated more by Exploration Drama

attendees also represent the second largest group of respondents

Dance theatre Table 4 indicates that Dance

theatre attendees only differ signifi cantly from non-attendees based on their travel motives Similar to drama attendees, visitors who attend dance theatre productions/shows are more

motivated by Festival productions at Aardklop Word art and poetry Word art and poetry attend-

ees differ signifi cantly from non-attendees based on age, number of tickets bought, number of years attended, some travel motives and spending per person (see Table 5) Attend-ees are in their late 40s (average age of 49 years) which is signifi cantly older than non-attendees who are in their early 40s Signifi cantly more tickets are also purchased by attendees (an average of 10 tickets) and it is therefore not surprising that these visitors are mainly moti-

vated by Festival productions Attendees spend

more per person (an average of R1729.74) pared with non-attendees and have attended the festival an average of six times Compared

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com-518 M Kruger, M Saayman and S Ellis

with the other genres, word art and poetry

attendees have attended the festival the longest

and are therefore Aardklop’s most loyal

visitors

Children’s theatre Table 6 shows that there is a

signifi cant difference between Children’s

theatre attendees and non-attendees based on

Table 5 t-Test results for word art and poetry

more motivated by Family togetherness

Chil-dren’s theatre attendees also represent the smallest group of attendees

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Theatre discussions Based on the results refl ected

in Table 7, theatre discussion attendees are in

their late 40s (average age of 48 years) which

is signifi cantly older than non-attendees

(average age of 41 years) and are more

moti-vated by Festival productions.

Music theatre and cabaret Music theatre and

cabaret attendees are older (average age of 45

years) than non-attendees, who are in their late 30s, and spend more days at the festival (an average of 3.3 days) (see Table 8) Attend-ees purchase more tickets for productions/shows (an average of eight) and are therefore

more motivated by Festival productions As

a result, attendees spend signifi cantly more per person (an average of R1635.58) than non-attendees

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Classical music As shown in Table 9, Classical

music attendees are the oldest visitors at the

festival (average age of 51 years) and purchase

the most tickets (average of 10) These loyal

visitors have attended the festival an average

of six times and stay longer at the festival than

non-attendees who are younger, purchase

sig-nifi cantly fewer tickets and stay fewer days

Similar to other genre supporters, classical music attendees are also more motivated by

Festival productions and therefore also spent

signifi cantly more per person (R1860.02) than non-attendees

Choir and ensemble Similar to classical music

attendees, visitors who attend choir and

Table 9 t-Test results for classical music

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DOI: 10.1002/jtr

ensemble productions (Table 10) are the oldest

visitors at Aardklop (average age of 50 years),

purchase an average of 10 tickets, have visited

the festival an average of six times and are

more motivated by Festival productions

Non-attendees are also very similar to the

non-clas-sical music attendees based on their age,

number of days spent at the festival, number

of tickets bought, years attended and tion (see Table 9)

motiva-Rock As indicated in Table 11, rock attendees

are the youngest visitors at the festival (average age of 31 years) Their younger age could

be explained by the fact that these visitors are mostly students and, compared with

Table 10 t-Test results for choir and ensemble

SD, standard deviation.

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non-attendees, these visitors stay longer at the

festival (an average of four days) and are

unsurprisingly motivated less by Family

togetherness.

Visual arts and exhibitions Visual arts and

exhibition attendees differ signifi cantly from

non-attendees based on the number of

tickets bought and years attended (Table 12)

Table 13 t-Test results for comedy

SD, standard deviation.

Attendees purchase on average more tickets (eight compared with six) and have attended Aardklop more often (an average of six times compared with four times)

Comedy Based on the results depicted in Table

13, comedy attendees represent the largest group of attendees, spend more days at the fes-tival, and purchase signifi cantly more tickets

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DOI: 10.1002/jtr

(an average of eight compared with four)

Attendees have attended Aardklop more times

and spend signifi cantly more per person than

non-attendees As expected, attendees are

moti-vated more by Festival production, while

non-attendees are encouraged more by Exploration.

FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS

The results from this study indicate that there

are clear differences between genre attendees

and non-attendees at Aardklop These

differ-ences are mostly based on socio-demographic

and behavioural characteristics which give a

comprehensive profi le of the two types of

visi-tors at the festival In general, genre attendees

are older and characterized by purchasing

tickets for a variety of shows/productions at

the festival with drama, comedies, and music

theatre and cabaret being the most popular

genres As expected, genre attendees also

spend more days at the festival and, as a result,

spend signifi cantly more money during the

festival These visitors are also loyal visitors

who have attended Aardklop more often and

are thus mainly motivated by the Festival

pro-ductions It is interesting to note that classical

music, choir and ensemble, and word-art and

poetry attendees seem to be Aardklop’s most

ardent genre supporters — even though these

genres attract a small number of visitors This

result is surprising, as these types of genres are

not main elements in the festival programme

and rarely feature mainstream and

contempo-rary artists or are included in marketing efforts

Non-genre attendees, on the other hand, are

characterized by their younger age, shorter

stays, fewer years attended, fewer tickets

pur-chased and lower spending

This information provides useful insights

into the profi les of the different genre

attend-ees at the festival Based on this, the following

important marketing implications can be

identifi ed:

First, from a marketing and sustainability

point of view, Aardklop’s marketers and

orga-nizers should focus their marketing efforts on

attracting and retaining more genre supporters

as this will ensure that the festival grows in

visitor numbers (especially loyal visitors) and,

at the same time, gain a competitive

advantage

Second, Aardklop needs to increase its ticket sales and this can be achieved on two levels: (i) in accordance with the fi rst implication, the festival must attract more genre attendees; and (ii) Aardklop needs to convince non-attendees

to purchase tickets supporting the festivals shows/productions Genre attendees are

mainly motivated by Festival productions which

cover the variety, quality and affordability of genres These aspects should therefore be incorporated into marketing efforts to encour-age visitors to purchase more tickets The dif-ferent genres at the festival should furthermore

be more visible in marketing efforts, and award-winning, exclusive and popular pro-ductions should be the prominent features To encourage non-attendees to purchase tickets, these aspects should be combined with the

motive Escape, as this will promote the festival

as an all-inclusive package Because attendees are mainly motivated by the free shows and socialization at the festival, Aardk-lop’s marketers/organizers could also con-sider special festival packages, which include discounts on food and beverage items if, for example, three or more tickets are purchased.Third, the length of stay of both the genre attendees and non-attendees needs to be increased This can be achieved with special festival packages that include local attractions and discounts for ticket prices and accommo-dation This will not only entice visitors to spend more days at the festival but also to attend more ticketed shows/productions Lastly, genre attendees are already in their late 40s and early 50s and this has serious implica-tions for the future sustainability of the festi-val Therefore, younger visitors need to be attracted to the festival and should be targeted with a customized festival programme which incorporates the different types of shows/pro-ductions together with the unique theme and vibe of the festival Aardklop could also con-sider more shows/productions aimed at the youth: for example, productions from different universities and schools as well as popular rock and contemporary music artists The attendance at these shows could be linked to a competition held during the festival, where young visitors who attend these shows/pro-ductions stand a chance to win various prizes such as free tickets, free merchandize, and

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non-524 M Kruger, M Saayman and S Ellis

backstage passes to name but a few This will

encourage younger visitors to attend more

shows/productions during the festival

CONCLUSIONS

The purpose of this article was to determine

whether there are signifi cant differences

between genre and non-genre attendees at

Aardklop This was the fi rst time that visitors

were segmented based on the type of genre

attended at a national arts festival in South

Africa From a methodological point of view,

the results indicated that this type of

segmen-tation can be successfully applied to arts

festi-vals In fact, this method is the only type of

segmentation that effectively distinguishes

dif-ferent markets based on attendance of difdif-ferent

genres and is thus invaluable for future

researchers to apply to other festivals and

events From the research, the following

advan-tages of this type of segmentation are as

follows:

(1) This approach separately profi les each

genre and non-genre attendee at the

festi-val, allowing festival organizers to

custom-ize the festival programme to attract

more genre attendees and encourage

non-attendees to support the ticketed shows/

productions For example, the results show

that classical music, choir and ensemble,

and word art and poetry supporters

pur-chase the most tickets at the festival and,

as a result, are also the highest spenders at

the festival However, the current festival

programme only offers limited

produc-tions of these genres As a result, only a

small number of visitors support these

genres Festival organizers view these

small attendance fi gures as a lack of

inter-est in these genres and therefore do not

include them as main features in the

val programme Because of this, the

festi-val loses out on potential ticket sales

Results from this study clearly show that

Aardklop’s festival programme should

include more of these types of

shows/pro-ductions, as they are supported by the high

spenders and visitors who attend the

festi-val for the arts This will not only result in

a greater economic impact of the festival but will allow Aardklop to stay true to its main aim i.e., preserving and enhancing the Afrikaans language and culture

(2) Potential festival markets can therefore also be identifi ed more easily, and possible gaps in the festival programme can be determined as mentioned above

The aforementioned will ultimately lead to

an increase in overall ticket sales and result in

a more competitive and sustainable festival This research therefore emphasizes the impor-tance of market segmentation, especially its continuous implementation This type of seg-mentation research should also be applied to other arts festivals in the country to compare results and to expand the body of knowledge

It is furthermore recommended that a cluster analysis is preformed to enhance the under-standing of the profi le of genre attendees

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The success of marketing destinations for

Muslim tourists could be guided by

observing Islamic teachings in tourism

activities This study is a trial to explore

which Islamic attributes of destinations

could be used a base for tailoring Halal

tourist packages Qualitative data were

collected by conducting two focus group

discussions and fi fty three interviews in

Malaysia Two major aspects are identifi ed

which may attract Muslim tourists Some

suggestions are also presented to satisfy

Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: Islamic attributes; destination

marketing; Muslim tourist; Islamic tourism

Received 2 March 2010; Revised 26 October 2010; Accepted 3

November 2010

INTRODUCTION

Literature on tourism and destination

marketing research is rich with key

themes that seek to explain why people

travel and select specifi c destinations Many of

the studies are based on the theory of pull and

push motivations (Jamrozy and Uysal, 1994;

Hanqin and Lam, 1999; Jang and Cai, 2002;

Bogari et al., 2004; Yoon and Uysal, 2005; Jang

and Wu, 2006; Kim et al., 2006; Correia et al.,

2007) The theory posits that tourists are pushed

by internal desires or emotional factors to travel as well as pulled by external factors in the form of the attributes of various destina-tions While many studies have been con-ducted to investigate the various types of destination attributes, there has been a lack of research on the religious attributes of the des-tination and its impact on tourist’s choice as well as satisfaction Moreover, when it comes

to Islamic religious attributes, the lack of study

is more noticeable and profound The objective

of this study is to investigate whether there exists a basis for segmenting the tourism market by Islamic religious attributes through studying the views and opinions of tourists visiting Malaysia

The Muslim tourism segment may consider

a target for destination marketers Assuming religion represents one of important factors in the decision-making process with regard to travel destinations (Collins and Tisdell, 2002),

it is important to ensure that Islamic religious attributes are available in those destinations This may lead to tourist satisfaction as well as encourage multiple return visits Muslims are well ordered to follow Islamic teachings which directly and indirectly impact on their deci-sions concerning leisure and travel plans (Zamani-Farahani and Henderson, 2010) In this regard, plans to market destinations for

Muslim tourists should be guided by Shariah

(Islamic code of life) rules specifi cally those that pertain to tourism activities

In recent years, it has been observed that there is a growing interest in new tourism con-cepts such as ‘Islamic tourism’ Another

concept is ‘Halal hospitality’ which is akin to the concept of ‘Halal food’, a concept already

recognized in many countries including those

in the Middle East (World Travel Market [WTM], 2007) Newspaper articles consider

Int J Tourism Res 13, 527–540 (2011)

Published online 5 December 2010 in Wiley Online Library

The Impact of Destination Attributes on Muslim Tourist’s Choice

Mohamed Battour1,*, Mohd Nazari Ismail1 and Moustafa Battor2

1 Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2 Faculty of Commerce, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt

*Correspondence to: Mohamed Battour, Faculty of

Busi-ness and Accountancy, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala

Lumpur, Malaysia.

E-mail: mohamedbator@siswa.um.edu.my

Trang 19

528 M Battour, M N Ismail and M Battor

this to be a new phenomenon in the United

Arab Emirates and Middle Eastern countries

Islamic tourism has attracted many tour

pack-ages entirely based on what they term ‘Islamic

culture’ (Javed, 2007), which is defi ned as a

type of religious tourism that is in conformity

with Islamic teachings regarding

behaviour-isms, dress, conduct and diet (WTM, 2007)

Heyer’s (2008) elaboration on the rapid

large-scale development of ‘Shariah-compliant

hotels’ is but another expression of the existing

trends towards increased Islamization of

activ-ities, which in the past focused more on

banking, insurance and fi nance Thus, tourism

is generally encouraged by Islamic law as

fol-lowing the religion entails etiquettes,

manner-isms, rules and regulations regarding conduct,

dress, food and prayer (Zamani-Farahani and

Henderson, 2010)

Islamic tourism operators target families

from the Persian Gulf known for their

conserv-ative interpretation of the teachings of Islamic

Shariah The WTM report (2007) shows that

Islamic tourism has the potential to develop

into a resilient market Promising market

poten-tialities cause it to be targeted by industry

oper-ators and market researchers Focus on this

market is further increased by a forecasted

increase in growth, whereby tourist income for

the Middle East is expected to grow 108% to a

staggering US$51 billion while domestic

tourism is expected to grow by 82% to reach

US$24 billion by 2011 Much of the forecasted

growth is due to increased numbers of Middle

Eastern Muslim tourists that underlines the

need for tailored Islamic tourism packages

offering services catering to Muslim needs

The negative side of western tourism causing

Islamic tourism to be increasingly popular

among some conservative Muslims are issues

that have a negative impact on the Muslim

community such as the consumption of alcohol,

prostitution, inappropriate dressing, kissing in

public and open affection between sexes in

public (Sindiga, 1996) In addition to that, the

traditional Arab and Muslim choice of USA

and Europe destinations has changed since the

September 11 attacks with Middle Eastern and

Muslim countries becoming increasingly

popular destinations for Muslim tourists

(Hen-derson, 2003) As a result, intratourism in the

Middle East and Muslim countries has boomed

remarkably (Al-Hamarneh and Steiner, 2004)

In response to this, the current study is an attempt to greater understand the new concept

of ‘Islamic tourism’

Muslims constitute a global market of 1.82 billion potential customers (Muslim Popula-tion Worldwide, 2009) Islamic religious attributes are bound to be very important con-siderations when a Muslim decides to travel abroad Given the potential problems expected from non-Islamic tourism, the Muslim tourist may decide not to travel to a particular desti-nation due to the absence of these attributes

According to Uysal et al (2008, p 413), a study

of the particular attributes of any given nation would provide clues and/or insights that destination marketers could use in devel-oping and promoting their tourism destina-

desti-tions Bogari et al (2004) claim that destination

attributes and issues pertaining to Islamic culture were not suffi ciently covered by researchers In effect, the study focuses in the Islamic attributes of destinations that could be used as a base to attract Muslim tourists in destination marketing programmes

The marketing of Islamic destinations is tainly not an easy task (Henderson, 2008b) because of the variance between the demands

cer-of western tourists and the Islamic teachings Therefore, exploring Islamic attributes may help destination marketers to tailor products and services that satisfy Muslim tourists that may increase the number of inbound tourists and improve economic growth Marketers may also use Islamic attributes in promotional pro-grammes In addition, this study attempts to offer insights into the tourism expectations and experiences of followers of the Islamic religion Muslim tourists could be infl uenced by reli-gious aspects in their destination choice Thus, the research question of this study is what types of Islamic attributes of destination satisfy Muslim tourists Therefore, the objective is to explore which Islamic attributes of destina-

tions such as worship facilities and Halal food

that may be important to the Muslim tourist; especially in the Muslim world

LITERATURE REVIEWReligion plays a large infl uence on many peo-ple’s behaviour as customers (Essoo and Dibb,

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Marketing Travel Destinations to Muslim Tourists 529

DOI: 10.1002/jtr

2004) In the context of tourism, religion may

infl uence the choice of destination and

tour-ists’ product preferences (Weidenfeld and Ron,

2008) According to Poria et al (2003), the

effects of religious belief on behaviour come

from two main sources The fi rst is the explicit

and clear guidelines on acceptable and

unac-ceptable behaviour or practices Examples

consist of the religious rules prohibiting

Muslims from consuming pork, or Hindus

from consuming beef The second means by

which behaviour is infl uenced is the fact that

religion shapes the culture, attitudes and

values of society This is supported by Grigg

(1995) whose research provides evidence on

the infl uence of religion and religiosity on

dietary habits Further support is found in

Essoo and Dibb (2004), who demonstrated the

infl uence of religion on consumer behaviour

by identifying the differences in consumer

spending between Muslims and Hindus

Although the relationship between tourism

and religion has been addressed in the

litera-ture on tourism, there remains a shortage of

theoretical publications in the area of tourism

in the context of Islam Religion and religiosity

are acknowledged factors infl uencing

behav-iour according to various social settings In

spite of this widely acknowledged fact, research

that explores relationships between religion,

behaviour and tourist destination choice

remains highly limited (Din, 1989; Rinschede,

1992; Fleischer, 2000; Howe, 2001; Poria et al.,

2003; Weidenfeld, 2006; Weidenfeld and Ron,

2008) Din (1989) argues that social scientists

have tended to overlook the importance of

reli-gion in tourism studies Its importance is

emphasized by Weidenfeld and Ron (2008)

who underline the general importance of the

relationship between tourism and religion For

this reason, Heo et al (2004) recommend more

related studies that identify and discuss special

tourist requirements and preferences Although

neglecting to mention religion specifi cally,

Meng et al (2008) conclude that tourists are

more likely to choose destinations believed to

best satisfy tourist ‘push’ needs and preferred

destination attributes

Studies conducted in this area include

Wei-denfeld (2006) that investigates the religious

needs of Christian tourist in the hospitality

industry, and Fleischer and Nitzav (1995) that

investigates the religious needs of Christian pilgrims in the tourism industry Likewise, Hoffmann (1994 cited in Weidenfeld, 2006) conducts research on Jewish ultra-orthodox tourism segment In addition to this, some papers complement the aforementioned research by discussing the religious require-ments in the tourism food sector For example, Dugan (1994) presents the religious necessities

in food supply for Muslim, Christian, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists

When it comes to the relationship between tourism and religion, particularly Islam, the lack of literature is more obvious, especially regarding Islamic religious attributes and their impact on tourist needs in general and Muslim tourists in particular Very few studies availa-ble typically focus on the needs of Muslim pil-grims’ (when they visit Makkah for the Hajj)

(Ahmed et al., 2006; Memish, 2007; Shafi et al.,

2008) rather than the needs of tourists However, Weidenfeld and Ron (2008) forecast increased number of religiously minded tour-ists who join dynamic multi-purpose packages especially from developing countries many of which are Muslim countries

Religious attributes

What does the term ‘religious attributes’ of destinations really mean? There are many aspects that can constitute ‘religious attributes’

of destinations The following sections present the literature on the matter:

Hotels meeting the religious needs of patrons

Additional religious services and provisions in hotels may result in attracting new markets and improved hotel rates (Weidenfeld, 2006)

A study in Israel conducted by Mansfeld et al

(2000) recommended placing ‘Makkah ers’ or ‘Qibla stickers’ (stickers with orna-mented arrows pointing towards the city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia for prayer directions)

stick-as well stick-as placing a copy of the Quran in every room occupied by Muslim visitors Din (1989) found that hotels in Kuantan, Malaysia, catered

to Muslim needs in the hospitality industry by requiring fi rst-class hotels to provide prayer rooms fully equipped with prayer mats, the Quran, Suruh Yasin and Tasbih, plus Qibla stickers

Trang 21

Weidenfeld (2006) presented a number of

suggestions to improve the

religion-friendli-ness of hotels The suggestions begin by simply

providing a bible in hotel rooms along with

providing information on religious activities

and institutions This keeps religiously minded

tourists in direct contact with scripture and

informed of available services Employment of

Christian workers creates a religious

atmos-phere in the hotel The hotel may choose to

organize its own religious activities It should

provide a place of worship within the hotel

itself or be in close proximity to a church

Christian symbols within a hotel such as a

cross and images of the Virgin Mary help to

provide a religious environment and décor

Religious values play a role in catering to

religious needs For example, Collins-Kreiner

and Kliot (2000) hypothesizes the Protestants’

need for a bible in hotel rooms based on their

belief in direct communication with God

Fleischer (2000) compares between Catholic

and Protestant pilgrims in terms of the

peculi-arities of their tourist needs The study reveals

that Protestants appreciate religious symbols

and opt for religious-sensitive tourist packages

more so than Catholics Moreover, Weidenfeld

(2006) recommended catering to such

Chris-tian needs in the hotel room as that may

increase the satisfaction of Christian tourists

Empirical studies on the impact of catering

to Islamic religious needs and the level of

sat-isfaction of Muslim tourists are very few Some

of the studies discuss services of this nature

that may include Muslim religious restrictions

such as activities of vice and forbidden entry

for unmarried couples (Din, 1989; Henderson,

2003; Zamani-Farahani and Henderson, 2010)

They also found that hotels may provide

reli-gious information such as the location of

nearby mosques or prayer times and nearby

Halal restaurants (Henderson, 2003)

Further-more, as Muslims avoid free mixing between

the sexes, hotels could offer separate

swim-ming pools and recreational facilities

(Hender-son, 2003; Al-Hamarneh and Steiner, 2004;

Timothy and Iverson, 2006) Hashim et al

(2007) suggested that availability of Halal food

and a list of nearby Halal restaurants on hotels

would satisfy Muslims in their holidays

Timothy and Iverson (2006) also suggested

that hotels should educate their staff on

cross-cultural communication to allow them to treat Muslim tourists with respect and consider recruiting religious staff In addition, it may be better if there are staff hostels for men and women (Henderson, 2003)

Places of worship The fi ve daily prayers are of

great importance to practising Muslims fore, the mosque (a Muslim house of worship)

There-or prayer room is considered to be one of the most crucial facilities for Muslims (Syed, 2001; Al-Hamarneh and Steiner, 2004) Weidenfeld (2006) suggests that proximity to a mosque may infl uence Muslim tourist preferences when making hotel reservations Mohsin (2005) conducted a study to assess Peninsular Malaysians attitude towards choosing the Northern Territory of Australia for a holiday as

a tourism destination and found that Muslim respondents were concerned about the availa-bility of mosques

Mohsin and Ryan (1997) recommend that the ease of access to Islamic services are impor-tant when they explored the attitudes of Malay-sian and Indonesian business people towards the possibility of holidaying in Australia It is also suggested that Middle Eastern countries take concrete steps to develop Islamic tourism internally by having prayer rooms at tourism sites (WTM, 2007) Syed (2001) also suggested that the availability of mosques at tourist des-tinations may increase satisfaction levels The mosque itself may be considered a tourist attraction if they are unique and outstanding (Henderson, 2003)

Availability of Halal food Dugan (1994)

pre-sented fi ndings on food service requirements

by Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians Evidence from Brown’s (1996) ethnographic study shows the infl uence of religious prohibitions on determining their expectations regarding services provided by a hotel such as appropriate ingredient choice and preparation This is further supported by Williams (2002) who identifi ed the role of the Jewish Kashrus (Jewish religious requirements)

in prohibiting certain foods and regulating compliance procedures for food preparation.For Muslims, the issue is centred on the

concept of Halalness Halal food refers to

food that can be lawfully consumed when

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DOI: 10.1002/jtr

conditions for Islamic food preparation are

met Food that is unlawful to Muslims includes

pork, pork-derived foods including lard and

bacon and meat and other products from

car-nivorous animals or those that feed on carrion

Consumption of any food or drinks with

alco-holic content is also prohibited (Dugan, 1994)

One important distinguishing feature of the

Halal label is that animals must be slaughtered

in a specifi c way and with the person carrying

out the slaughter reciting the name of Allah

(God)

There are many studies that show the

impor-tance of the availability of Halal food to

Muslims in choosing their tourist destinations

(Mohsin and Ryan, 1997; Syed, 2001; Mohsin,

2005; Weidenfeld, 2006; Weidenfeld and Ron,

2008) The importance of this to some Muslims

is refl ected by the fact that even when served

Halal food, many are still concerned over

whether the food is genuinely Halal

Hender-son (2003) found that some fi rms in the Western

tourism industry are concerned over this issue

Some Muslims ask about the ingredients the

meal is made up of because pork and alcohol

in all its many forms are forbidden Therefore,

meals which are provided to Muslim have to

be alcohol- and pork-free, and the utensils

have to be uncontaminated by these two

ele-ments (Dugan, 1994)

Catering to Muslim tourists’ needs in terms

of providing Halal food in any particular

desti-nation may increase their overall satisfaction

and loyalty Mansfeld et al (2000) gives explicit

recommendations for providing food which

complies with Shariah laws Therefore, a caterer

who is aware on how to satisfy Muslims or who

offers religious groups’ dietary needs will attract

more Muslim customers (Dugan, 1994)

Banning of alcohol consumption and gambling

According to Islamic Shariah, it is completely

forbidden for Muslims to drink or sell alcohol

Muslims are also prohibited from gambling

and being involved in the gambling industry

It is stated in Holy Qur’an: ‘O ye who believe!

Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of)

stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an

abomination, — of Satan’s handwork: eschew

such (abomination), that ye may prosper’

(Holy Qur’an, 5: 90) Moreover, the Prophet of

Islam, Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

‘Alcohol is the mother of all evils and it is the most shameful of evils’ (Ibn Majah, 2004) It is also not permissible for Muslims to visit places where alcohol is consumed and gambling is practised (Din, 1989; Henderson, 2003, 2008a;

Al-Hamarneh and Steiner, 2004; Hashim et al.,

2007; Zamani-Farahani and Henderson, 2010).Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bangladesh and Pakistan implement very restrictive policies on public consumption of alcohol and gambling However, in some other Muslim countries, such as Egypt and Turkey, the situations are not so restrictive For example, in most states in Malaysia, alcohol is freely available although Muslims can be pun-ished for drinking in public (Aljazeera, 2009)

Sexual permissiveness The Shariah expressly

forbids Muslims from engaging in fornication

or adultery Activities deemed conducive to sexual permissiveness are not allowed to take place in public This is based on many verses

in The Holy Quran including like: ‘Nor come nigh to adultery: for it is a shameful (deed) and

an evil, opening the road (to other evils)’ (Holy Qur’an, 17: 32)

Many Muslim scholars take the view that it

is Haram or not permissible to visit, for the sake

of tourism, places where sexual ness is rampant Their opinion is based on the principle that Islam came to impede all roads leading to evil If some tourist activities result

permissive-in the facilitation or the commission of spermissive-ins, then it is not permissible for Muslims to be involved in such tourist activities (Rasma, 2008)

Most Muslim countries including Malaysia prohibit adultery The Malaysian licensing policy prohibits prostitution and behaviours such as public or indecent displays of affection (Din, 1989; Henderson, 2003, 2008a; Zamani-Farahani and Henderson, 2010) Moreover, in some Malaysian towns, municipal enactments for lodging establishments explicitly forbid unmarried couples from being in close proxim-ity (Din, 1989) Many Muslim authorities frown

on tourism in general due to the perception that tourism is associated with sexual permis-siveness (Din, 1989) Therefore, some Muslim scholars prohibit sex tourism as practised by some Arab Muslims from the Middle East in travelling to Europe or Bangkok (Din, 1989)

Trang 23

What is more, using sexually provocative

images in marketing tourist destinations to

Muslim customers is also frowned upon

According to Shariah, promotion techniques

must not use sexual appeal in international

marketing (Saeed et al., 2001) Female images

are therefore not featured in tourism

promo-tion in some Malaysian states like Terengganu

(Henderson, 2003) Mohsin (2005) is of the

opinion that the use of sexually provocative

images of bikini-clad girls to promote a

desti-nation will not attract Muslim tourists

Dress code According to Shariah, Muslim

women must not expose their hair and body

The Holy Quran states: ‘O Prophet, tell your

wives and daughters and the believing women

to draw their outer garments around them

(when they go out or are among men) That is

better in order that they may be known (to be

Muslims) and not annoyed ’ (Holy Qur’an,

33: 59) Men are supposed to cover their thighs

(Timothy and Iverson, 2006)

In deciding tour destinations, Muslims look

at the local dress codes in that particular region

of the world being considered Such

considera-tions are to gauge the level of conformity to

Islamic dress norms in order to determine if

they will or will not be comfortable visiting

that particular destination This is particularly

so for Arab tourists who have to observe strict

dress codes in their native countries and prefer

not to expose themselves and families to

envi-ronments that may threaten their sense of

proper dressing

Hashim et al (2007) demonstrates the

Malay-sian Tourist Board’s awareness of Islamic dress

sensitivities by restricting their marketing

cam-paigns to present only traditional Malay Muslim

dress codes Women with headscarves and men

wearing Songkoks — a black rimless hat worn

by Malay men usually for praying — were

depicted on advertising billboards and home

pages Some conservative Malaysian states

enforce appropriate dress norms prohibiting

people from disturbing cultural norms by

wearing revealing clothes such as bikinis

Fur-thermore, western tourists are expected to adorn

the Islamic attire when visiting religious places

like mosques (Henderson, 2003)

Zamani-Farahani and Henderson (2010)

claim that Shariah laws prohibit improper

dressing Al-Hamarneh and Steiner (2004) assert that considerations of the religious con-servatism of any particular region including prescribed dress codes should be respected Such cultural considerations are expected more

so of tourism operators in all aspects of the tourism industry as they are interacting directly and regularly with foreign tourists (Weiden-feld and Ron, 2008)

METHODOLOGYThe objective of this study is to explore Islamic religious attributes that may be important to Muslim travellers In order to achieve this objec-tive, focus group discussions (FGD) were con-ducted and were followed up with interviews

to explore opinions and travel experiences in more depth This combination of the FGD and the interviews has its advantages First, in iden-tifying a range of Islamic religious attributes from the FGD Second, to explore in depth, by conducting interviews using a relatively wide range of participants in order to discover more Islamic attributes and to check the conclusions with the FGD (Morgan, 1996) The FGD and the interviews are research techniques pertaining to qualitative research (Myers, 2009, p 121)

The aim of the FGD is to collect information through group interaction but the interview is considered an opportunity to discover new

information from individuals (Cavana et al.,

2008, p 138) The advantages of FGDs in this research are to generate a broad range of infor-mation, insight and ideas related to Islamic attributes of destination and to cover the topic

in fl exible way, while the disadvantage of the FGDs is that the lack of structure may make the results subject to the interviewer’s infl uence.Semi-structured questions were designed in this study for the purpose of conducting inter-views and FGDs The participants were asked about the Islamic attributes they would require when travelling in a Muslim country or a non-Muslim country They were then asked specifi -cally about these attributes when visiting Muslim countries This was followed by probing questions that sought to explore in detail specifi c attributes generated from FGDs The semi-structured questions were related to some attributes such as access to mosque, prayer facilities/room at tourism sites,

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DOI: 10.1002/jtr

presence of loud public pronouncement of

Azan, Placement of Qibla stickers, provision of

a copy of the Quran in hotel room, Halal issues

(food, alcoholic drinks, kitchen, gambling),

segregated services provided in hotels, Islamic

dress code, prostitutions, display of affection

between sexes and general morality

Two FGDs were conducted in June 2009 The

participants of these focus groups were

inter-national PhD students currently studying in

Malaysia in different areas of research The

method used was ‘convenience sampling

method’ and this was carried out by contacting

students in the PhD programme All of them

are Muslims and most of them are religious

based on their own assessment of themselves

The participants of FGD 1 consisted of eight

males from Saudi Arabia, Palestine,

Maurita-nia, Oman, Jordan, Yemen, Egypt and Sudan

The duration of FGD1 was one and a half

hours The participants of FGD 2 consisted of

seven females from Egypt, Libya, Yemen,

Nigeria, Oman, Turkey and Algeria The

dura-tion of FGD 2 was one hour and fi fteen minutes

and the participants did not agree to record the

session digitally The reason for this may be

culturally related The FGDs were broken

down into two groups according to gender

because many/some ladies from some Middle

East countries may be more reserved if they are

in the presence of men, and this may affect

their response to questions, especially if the

issue involves special needs of women tourists

All FGD participants had overseas travel

expe-rience for various purposes such as tourism,

business, learning and visiting friends

A total of 53 interviews were conducted with

tourists in Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of

Malaysia, 27 interviews in July 2009 and 26

interviews in October 2009 The interviewees

were patrons of international hotels in Kuala

Lumpur around the ‘Golden Triangle Area’

where many international chain hotels are

located The respondents were chosen by using

convenience sampling method Two

research-ers approached as many Muslim tourists as

possible at these hotels and requested them to

participate in the study Thirty-eight tourists

did not accept to be interviewed The duration

of most interviews was between 35–45 minutes

Forty-one interviews were recorded digitally

The rest were unable to be recorded due to

objections from the interviewees who were females from the Middle East The interviewer transcribed both the FGDs as well as all inter-view sessions Some interviewees from the Middle East preferred to communicate in Arabic while the rest were conducted in English The interviewer adopted the probing technique during the session to encourage the participants to provide more details All par-ticipants (FGDs and interviewees) were asked

to describe themselves whether he or she is secular, mildly religious, religious or very reli-gious Some demographic information was also gathered The digital recording of the interviews was changed into text The data was organized for easy categorization and sys-tematic data analysis

FINDINGSThe results of the two FGDs indicate that there are differences between the attitudes of female and male respondents Female respondents focused more on privacy and segregation of gender on entertainment centres while male

focus more on worship facilities and Halal

issues Nine participants (FGDs and views) were secular, 22 participants were mildly religious, 26 were religious and 11 were very religious According to the demographic profi le of the interviewees, 30 of them were males and 23 were females Twenty two interviewees were between 18 and 29 years old, 19 interviewees were between 30 and 39 years old and 12 were above 40 years old Thirty nine of the interviewees were married and 14 were single Regarding the educational level, six interviewees were intermediate, 31 interviewees were university degree holder and 16 were post graduate

inter-Results of the analysis were categorized into two major aspects which are tangible and intangible The tangible aspect consists of Islamic religious facilities such as worship

facilities and Halal food.

Tangible aspects

Prayer facilities

Mosque All interviewees were concerned about the availability of Mosques (Masjid) or

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prayer rooms for their tourist destination Easy

access to a mosque/prayer room is considered

a vital aspect for Muslim tourists and should

not be ignored by tourism planning but should

be considered a necessary service This can be

shown in the following response:

Masjid or prayer room must be

avail-able in the streets and public places In

other words, a prayer room should be

available in all places which I may visit in

the destination such as hotels, shopping

malls, and airports Even in the airplane

to destination, it should allocate a place

for prayer (FGD No 1)

Masjid is available in most of the places

in the destination during my journey, in

shopping malls, highways and of

course in the hotel (Int No.1, USA)

It is noticed from the previous responses that

Muslim tourists expect easy access to a Masjid

and/or prayer room to be a primary

require-ment in Muslim countries They also

high-lighted that they expect to fi nd prayer facilities

readily accessible during tourist activities

Quran and Qiblah direction pointer All

inter-viewees emphasized the importance of the

pro-vision of Qurans and Qiblah direction pointers

in hotel rooms Some proposed that one or two

simple Islamic books to be provided in hotel

rooms and in aeroplane seat pockets

It will be fi ne if I fi nd Quran book in

hotel room, some Islamic leafl ets in the

airplane seat pocket, Makkah direction

pointer, Sejadda for prayer (prayer mat),

simple Islamic book in hotel room

(FGD No 1)

I need the Holy Quran book inside the

hotel room, some Islamic books which I

can read; I don’t want any statue or

sculp-ture like a Buddhist I found that in India

when I was there Also direction of Qibla

is important to me (Int No.15,

Djibouti)

The Quran is the holy book for Muslims

Muslims are highly encouraged to read the

Holy Quran Although some conservative

Muslims have a soft copy of the Quran on their

hand phones, the hard copy represents the

preferable option for reading Moreover, since praying towards Makkah is a basic require-ment of Muslims’ prayers, the Makkah direc-tion pointer is a basic demand of Muslims when they perform their prayers away from home or at places where they are unsure of the exact direction towards Makkah Some hotel industry practitioners, even some hotels in non-Muslim countries, already provide Qiblah pointers inside their hotel rooms but some par-ticipants report that they did not fi nd it in some hotels in Muslim countries

Muslim toilets Thirty-six interviewees who have travelled to western destinations com-plained about the bath room because they could not perform ablution (Muslim man-datory washing before performing prayers) There is no such facility inside airport toilets and hotels Therefore, they requested Muslim toilets to be provided in all airports, hotels and public places

Muslim toilet is very important in airport because the regular toilets provide only tissue As Muslims, we need water supply inside the toilet It should be found in public places because in the hotel you can

fi nd water but in public it is diffi cult (Int No.14, Thailand)

I will be very happy if I fi nd and Bidet

in the bathroom (Int No.2, Canada)Muslim followers must do ablution before prayers They are required to clean themselves with water when using the toilet Some coun-tries adopt modern toilet designs which do not enable users to wash themselves using water; providing only tissue However, some Muslim countries have modifi ed this style and have adopted a Muslim design for their bathrooms that provide water From previous participant responses, they fi nd it satisfying when water facilities are made available in toilets

Halal food All interviewees reported that the availability of Halal food is a basic need for all

destinations It is noticed that all interviewees

need Halal meals in fl ights to their destination

Moreover, they recommended that hotels and restaurants in the destination should provide

Halal meals free from pork and alcohol Some

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DOI: 10.1002/jtr

of them were worried about the preparation of

Halal meals Seven interviewees highlighted

that the kitchen should also be Halal which

means that Halal and non-Halal foods cannot

be cooked together in the same kitchen and

with the same utensils

I need Halal food to be available The

mosques and Halal food restaurants,

mostly they are close to each other Last

week, I was in Cambodia Once I was

close to the Masjid I found Halal

restau-rants (Int No.13, Turkey)

Some hotels, in breakfast they provide

Halal food and non-Halal food from the

same kitchen that means the Halal and

non Halal food are cooked together using

the same facilities I need Halal kitchen

Moreover, some Arabian tourists can’t

read English so they eat non-Halal meat

(Int No.12, Egypt)

The travel experiences of some participants

highlighted that easy-to-fi nd Halal food is one

factor in choosing the destination for their

vacation Some are very sensitive regarding

Halal issues and go well beyond Halal labels

They want to make sure the meat and

ingredi-ents used in cooking are Halal and do this by

usually asking the service providers On top of

this, they also ask whether the kitchen is Halal

or not In response to this, some hotels in

Malaysia allocate two kitchens: Halal and

non-Halal.

Twenty-eight interviewees prefer not to see

the consumption of alcohol in tourism sites,

shopping malls, hotels and parks They are not

happy if they see someone drinking alcohol in

Muslim destinations Some proposed that

airline operators designate non-drinking

sec-tions in aeroplanes Five interviewees were

concerned about the safety of their children

when they are around alcohol drinkers and the

fear that their children may not be capable

to distinguish between alcoholic and

non-alcoholic beverages

When I was in Australia, one of my kids

opened the refrigerator in the hotel room

and took a can of alcohol and asked me

to open it I was shocked He cannot

dif-ferentiate between the Coca-Cola can

from the beer can So the hotel should not sell alcohol (Int No.7, Morocco)

In the fl ight, one thing that really turbed me was that they served alcohol

dis-It is not because people are drinking alcohol in my environment It is not only that It is also because I too paid for the alcohol How? They calculate the average for people who may drink alcohol and put that in the ticket cost So my contribu-tion will go to another person who is drinking alcohol So I don’t need alcohol for two reasons: the environment and my contribution for those who are drinking (Int No.8, Nigeria)

Intangible aspects

The intangible aspects relating to the general environment experienced by tourists some-times cannot be helped However, interview-ees appreciate if there is an Islamic environment

in their tourist destination, meaning an ronment which is Islamic entertainment, com-plies with Islamic dress codes, observant of Islamic morality and Islamic call (Azan) for prayer

envi-Islamic entertainment Thirty-nine interviewees

gave high priority to fi nding Islamic-oriented recreations such as segregation of men and women’s beaches, segregated swimming pools and gyms Some female interviewees reported that they cannot enjoy swimming because sometimes the rules require that they wear swimming attires not conforming to Islamic teachings and culture Some proposed different time sessions for the exclusive use of the swimming pool of either men or women Twenty-six interviewees preferred not to take their families to beaches or swimming pools where women wear bikinis Twenty-one inter-viewees opted for the banning of adult video channels in hotel entertainment

As a Muslim, I need men-only beach and women-only beach I visited Turkey before They build walls with rocks So if you swim at the men’s side of the beach, you cannot see the women’s side Sepa-rate swimming pools for me as a woman

Trang 27

I would like to enjoy myself also but I

want to make sure men cannot see me

(Int No.10, Libya)

I need strictly covered swimming pool

for my wife and the same with the gym

also (Int No.4, Saudi Arabia)

I will be happy if I fi nd beaches with

separate areas for women and men (Int

No.1, USA)

When I was in Jakarta, I found porn

channels in the hotel TV It is not suitable

for me as a Muslim nor for my family

(Int No.24, Kuwait)

I wish in Muslim country taxis with

female drivers’ service are provided for

female passengers and for family We

have this service in my country if the

client so request (No.20, Emirates)

The reason for the previous responses may

be interpreted by the issue of mixing of the

sexes in Islam Free mixing of the sexes along

with inappropriate and revealing dress is

strictly prohibited by the Shariah These acts

are prohibited because they are among the

causes of Fitnah (temptation or trial that

implies evil consequences), the arousal of

desires, committing indecent acts and false

practices Among the many proofs of the

pro-hibition of the meeting and mixing of men and

women in the Holy Quran is: ‘ And when

ye ask (his ladies) for anything ye want, ask

them from before a screen: that makes for

greater purity for your hearts and for theirs ’

(Holy Qur’an, 33: 53) In line with the issue of

mixing of the sexes, the services provider for

Muslim tourist may assign female staff for

women and male staff for men

Another reason may be the cultural factor

Some Muslims, especially Arabian tourists, are

highly conservative They want to enjoy the

services provided but at the same time want to

follow their Islamic culture

Islamic dress codes Twenty-six interviewees

reported that they prefer it if the Islamic dress

code was prevalent in their desired

destina-tion They prefer waitresses wearing hijab and

not short skirt Most interviewees said that

they appreciate it if female hotel staffs wear

hijab However, these suggestions may be

dif-fi cult to apply in Muslim countries which are more liberal such as Turkey where wearing of hijab is not allowed in some public areas (e.g universities and government buildings) In these countries, hijab-clad female employees may have to work in specially designated areas Moreover, some interviewees proposed that it will be better if employees were Muslims Actually, a waitress should dress Hijab and not tight clothes They have to serve

me only (Int No.3, Iraq)

I appreciate it if there are no pictures

of naked people in ads especially bill boards Hijabs are the dominant dress in the destination and no free shows (naked

or semi-naked bodies) in public places (Int No.5, Algeria)

I have travelled to European countries but I did not feel comfortable in some issues For example, I hope that the hotel employees are friendly to Muslims because sometimes they don’t respect Muslim women who are wearing Nikab (Hijab with covered face) So it will be better if they (the employees) are Muslim (Int No.20, Emirates)

General Islamic morality Thirty-one

interview-ees highly appreciated tourism operators who control exposure to indecent behaviour The interviewees prefer not to expose themselves and their families to indecent public conduct which is contrary to Islamic teachings like public kissing, prostitution and the public showing of affection between sexes

In the hotel, I will appreciate it if there

is no sexual interaction near my room I don’t want such exposure It is a shame that some hotels supply prostitutes espe-cially in Muslim countries (Int.No.6, Egypt)

The most important thing is regarding the couple; Boy friend and girl friend and prostitute Sometimes, they have interac-tion in public They are showing affec-tion If you have kids, it will affect the ethics of your children To be honest, it cannot be controlled I know it is very

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DOI: 10.1002/jtr

hard to control At least give advance

information if the places have such things

(Int No.19, Turkey)

I would like to see good morality in public

spaces and parks in terms of relationship

between sexes, such as no public kissing

(Int No.23, Saudi Arabia)

Islamic call (Azan) for prayer Thirty-one

inter-viewees were concerned about the need for

public calling of the Azan (prayer time)

Desti-nation operators should provide information

about Muslim prayer times Seventeen

inter-viewees recommended a prayer time call

during fl ights or journeys to their destinations,

hotels, shopping malls and parks Some also

requested prayer time clocks (which ring with

each prayer time) or a prayer timetable in the

hotel room

I need also Prayer time call in the

air-plane, airport, hotel or at least prayer

timetable in hotel room (Int.No.2, Canada)

Prayer timetable or Alfajr clock (Prayer

time clock brand) should be found in

hotel room (Int.No.4, Saudi Arabia)

In Islam, Muslims should pray fi ve times

daily but they are permitted to merge and

shorten the prayers while travelling according

to the length of the journey and other Islamic

legal rules and requirements As such, the

par-ticipants preferred that they be reminded about

prayer times in order that they may choose

between praying at the usual times or merge

them

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

This research has investigated the Islamic needs

of Muslim travellers and has focused on the

Islamic attributes of destinations within the

Muslim world The data was collected by

con-ducting two FGDs and 53 interviews with

Muslim tourists in Malaysia Two major aspects

are identifi ed as Islamic attributes of

destina-tions that may attract Muslim tourists; tangible

attributes and intangible attributes The

tangi-bles attributes include prayer facilities and

Halal food while intangible attributes include

Islamic entertainment, Islamic dress codes, general Islamic morality and Islamic call for prayer

The results show that mutual consensus is found regarding easy access to worship places

(Masjid/prayer room), easy to fi nd Halal food,

availability of the Quran and the Qiblah tion pointer Islamic toilets and Islamic enter-tainment were reported as highly prioritized tangible attributes It is also concluded that the intangible aspects are limited only to Muslim countries because these aspects are not realistic within the context of Westernized non-Muslim societies Moreover, the applica-tion of the proposed intangible aspects may represent challenges facing the tourism indus-try in Muslim countries willing to satisfy non-Muslim tourists

direc-Given the Muslim tourist market is a niche market, destination marketers should pay more attention to this important market and its

fi nancial potential However, the majority of Muslim countries is classifi ed under the third world and is also poor countries except for a few oil producers Muslims are not a single market because there are vast differences among them regarding their understanding of Islam and the degree of their will to practise it For example, wearing the head cover (hijab) as

a dress code for Muslim women is observed by some and not observed by others Moreover, the degree of religiosity is considered an important factor behind these differences which impact on the services required by Muslims In other words, the degree of religi-osity of a Muslim tourist affects his or her needs Therefore, it is better to satisfy Muslim tourists by designing packages that suit their demands This indicates that Shariah compli-ant products or services provided may satisfy Muslim tourists and is dependent on his or her level of religiosity

It is not expected that all Muslims practise Islam correctly Tourism operators cannot differentiate between those who observe Islamic Shariah strictly and those who do not

It may be a good option if Islamic religious sentiments are catered to for Muslim tourists because the majority of Muslims are nearly committed Muslims In this situation non-committed Muslims are free to choose between being catered to in the Islamic way or not It is

Trang 29

only logical to offer packages that cater for the

majority and make allowances for those who

wish to select other options

The availability of Islamic religious attributes

need not affect non-Muslims Tourism

opera-tors should provide services that cater for

non-Muslim needs by allocating places exclusively

for them to pursue those activities that are

pro-hibited by Islam For example, the hotel or

aeroplane may allocate special sections for

those wishing to drink alcohol along the same

line as smoking areas in airports An Islamic

environment should be guided by Islamic

teachings implemented by imposing certain

rules and restrictions regulating behaviour in

public Awareness programmes should be

designed for non-Muslim tourists regarding

behaviour not accepted by Islam

It is noticeable from the interviews that

Islamic culture plays a role in those Islamic

aspects which tourists require to be provided

for their travels For example, expectations of

tourists from Saudi Arabia are considerably

much higher compared with other

nationali-ties This is because Saudi Arabian Muslims

are relatively more conservative compared

with Muslims from other countries This is

because Muslim Arabian culture is highly

conservative The following suggestions are

generated from the exploratory discussion in

this study and they may be useful for tourist

operators to keep in mind for offer-ing

ser-vices/products catering to Muslim needs:

(1) Provision of maps that indicate locations

of mosques/prayer facilities by tourism

information centres, airports, hotels,

parks, etc and which clearly indicate

the red light districts in order that Muslims

avoid these places

(2) Provision of prayer timetables by tourism

information centres, airports, hotels and

parks, etc

(3) Muslim tourists prefer that alcoholic

drinks are not provided in the hotel room

refrigerator If a Muslim tourist requires

one, he or she may request for it

(4) Destination marketers need to identify

and address the Islamic culture of

differ-ent nationalities in order to be design

packages that satisfy the needs of those

nationalities

(5) Banning of adult channels in hotel tainment Muslims tourists may not be happy if their children are exposed to such things

enter-(6) Hospitality operators should take into consideration Islamic architecture and design in the hotel design

(7) It is preferable if hotels provide Siwak (natural toothbrush made from the arak tree) for Muslim tourists in their rooms.(8) It is preferable that travel agents choose hotels for Muslims that are far from red-light districts Tourist guides should avoid visiting these places on tour programmes.(9) It is recommended that hotels hire female staff who observe Islamic dress codes to cater for the need of tourists who are con-cerned about this issue

(10) Allocating female staff for women and male staff for men such as availability of taxis with female drivers’ service for female passengers that satisfi es the needs

of some Middle Eastern families

The fi ndings of this study should help keters better understand ‘Islamic tourism’, develop marketing strategies to attract Muslim tourists and also encourage repeat purchases A destination can enhance the probability of its selection by identifying and marketing its ability

mar-to meet the needs that their chosen travel ments consider important However, this study has limitations related to the data used The quantity of data may be limited as the two FGDs and 53 interviews may not be suffi cient for the purpose of generalizing the fi ndings Further-more, although there are censuses regarding all the attributes proposed among Muslim groups according to Islamic law, other Islamic attri-butes may be ignored as there are no partici-pants from other Muslim groups Finally, this research recommends that the needs of Muslims travellers be studied empirically Scales should

seg-be developed to study Islamic religious attributes for quantitative research which may

be useful for the generalization of results

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Religion and tourism share a close

relationship in which the former motivates

travel and is a source of assorted visitor

attractions Pilgrimage is one expression of

the ties between the two and the paper

identifi es key pilgrimage tourism issues

pertaining to demand and provision that are

discussed within the context of the

contemporary hajj The hajj by Muslims to

the cities they deem holy in Saudi Arabia is

a distinctive illustration that involves the

mass movement of pilgrims every year

Numbers are strictly controlled, but set to

rise as the government pursues a policy of

expanding space at certain holy sites and

encouraging an increase in the supply of

accommodation and other amenities as well

as enhancing supporting infrastructure

Some projects are very ambitious, leading to

questions about whether the pace of

development is sustainable The purpose of

the study is to improve understanding of

the uniqueness and signifi cance of the hajj

phenomenon and illuminate the challenges

of managing large-scale religious tourism

events in the changing world of the

Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: the hajj; pilgrimage; religious

tourism; Saudi Arabia; sustainable

development

Received 8 March 2010; Revised 9 November 2010; Accepted

10 November 2010

INTRODUCTION

This paper deals with pilgrimage tourism

and focuses on selected critical issues that are discussed within the context

of the hajj in sections devoted to demand, the religious–secular nexus, organization and management, and sustainable development The hajj to sites in or near the Saudi Arabian holy cities of Mecca and Medina is central to Islam and a pilgrimage that all Muslims are required to make at least once in a lifetime unless excused from doing so by extenuating circumstances Religious obligation, combined with the sizeable and growing Muslim popula-tion worldwide, results in mass movements of travellers to and within Saudi Arabia during the hajj season that authorities there must seek

to manage One offi cial response to the dable task of hosting the hajj has been to expand the capacity of key structures and spaces and, in co-operation with the commer-cial sector, extend and modernize transport and accommodation facilities This process has accelerated in recent years and there are ambi-tious plans for the forthcoming decade, sug-gesting the timeliness of an examination of the attributes and consequences of the contempo-rary hajj Its highly distinctive characteristics are revealed, but an analysis also offers wider insights into the interconnectedness of religion and tourism and the challenges of managing major religious events A case study, based upon details in the public domain collected from print and electronic media, was chosen as suitable for the exercise Material thus gath-ered was supplemented by data requested from offi cial agencies and the thoughts of a small group of hajj participants who were con-sulted informally Information and ideas about the performance of the hajj and its manage-ment were then consolidated

Int J Tourism Res 13, 541–552 (2011)

Published online 7 December 2010 in Wiley Online Library

Religious Tourism and Its Management: The Hajj in Saudi Arabia

Joan Catherine Henderson*

Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

*Correspondence to: Dr J C Henderson, Nanyang

Busi-ness School, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang

Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore.

E-mail: ahenderson@ntu.edu.sg

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542 J C Henderson

RELIGION, TOURISM AND PILGRIMAGE

The subject of religion and tourism, once

com-paratively neglected, is generating a growing

literature Much of this has an anthropological

or sociological orientation (Cohen, 1992, 1998;

Rinschede, 1992; Vukonic, 1996), but

geogra-phical (Collins-Kreiner, 2010a) and historical

(Eickleman and Piscatori, 1990) perspectives

are also adopted Edited books (Timothy and

Olsen, 2006) contain contributions by authors

from assorted tourism-related disciplines, and

more commercial evaluations should not be

overlooked (Russell, 1999; Mintel, 2005) A

close relationship is apparent in which religion

is a powerful motivating force for travel and a

source of various tourist attractions that draw

the devout and those with a more casual

inter-est According to Woodward (2004, p 174),

built heritage and religious traditions

espe-cially ‘retain an appeal that often transcends

personal culture or faith’ Religion may also be

a cause of or contribute to discord,

precipitat-ing disturbances that can tarnish destination

images Such adverse effects have been

pro-voked by the tensions between Northern

Ire-land’s Protestants and Catholics in the later

decades of the twentieth century (Lennon and

Titterington, 1996) and Arab–Israeli confl icts in

the Middle East (Mansfeld, 1994) In these

instances, religious and political fi ssures are

interwoven in a manner that complicates

rec-onciliation and impedes tourism

Conventional pilgrimages are a

manifesta-tion of the way in which religion and tourism

interact and have a very long history (Coleman

and Elsner, 1995) They are essentially about

movement and activity directed by religion

(Stoddard and Morinis, 1997) Major faiths of

Buddhism (Proser, 2010), Christianity

(Collins-Kreiner and Kliot, 2000), Judaism (Cohen

Ioan-nides and IoanIoan-nides, 2006) and Hinduism

(Sharpley and Sundaram, 2005) all inspire

pil-grimage as does Islam, which is considered in

more detail hereafter Such travel has been

facilitated by wider trends of improving

trans-port and communications that increase

acces-sibility Greater affl uence is fuelling demand

and numerous religious and non-religious

agencies arrange, sell and promote pilgrimage

tours, which are a lucrative market

(Trianta-fi llidou et al., 2010) Some religious leaders are

also showing willingness to sanctify sites in an attempt to engage followers in what is seen by many as a secular era (Woodward, 2004).There has been discussion about exact defi -nitions of pilgrimage (Collins-Kreiner and Gatrell, 2006), and the term is no longer con-

fi ned to specifi c and traditional belief systems (Margry, 2008) It can have new age associa-tions when more personalized forms of spiri-tuality are pursued (Attix, 2002; Reader, 2007), and these journeys may be multifunctional whereby religion is not the sole element Sites, too, have been labelled ‘multiple products’

(Yeh et al., 2009, p 582) of appeal to visitors of

differing degrees of religious commitment The debate about tourists as pilgrims is long stand-ing (Turner and Turner, 1978; Belhassen, 2009), and MacCannell (1973) argues that every tourist is a pilgrim of sorts Smith (1992) pres-ents a continuum from pious pilgrim to secular tourist, and several other typological models have been put forward (Ron, 2009) These dis-tinguish between pilgrims of formal religions, who commonly conform to pre-ordained pat-terns of behaviour (Fleischer, 2000), and main-stream travellers, although some general needs are common Bremer (2004) notes shared traits

of place attachment, articulation of identity, desire for authenticity and commercialization Similarities are also observed by Collins-Kreiner (2010b), who concurs with the view of Badone and Roseman (2004, p 2) that ‘rigid dichotomies between pilgrims and tourists no longer seem tenable in the shifting world of postmodern travel’

Nevertheless, sites perceived as sacred by visitors of whatever religious persuasion have special qualities that engender particular sen-sitivities over their stewardship (Shackley, 2001) Religious structures and spaces of his-toric value are also exposed to the dilemmas, which are particularly acute in the developing world, inherent in managing heritage gener-ally and presenting it as a visitor attraction (Timothy and Nyaupane, 2009) There is scope for contestation over use as well as meaning (Digance, 2003; Cohen-Hattab, 2010), and visitor expectations, experiences and feelings

of satisfaction are not uniform (Poria et al.,

2006) Pilgrims have special requirements taining to respect for the sanctity of the pil-grimage site and the satisfactory practice of

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per-The Management of Religious Tourism 543

DOI: 10.1002/jtr

religious observances (Nolan and Nolan, 1992),

yet their presence in large numbers leads

almost inevitably to a certain level of

commer-cialization (Eade, 1992) Their journeys thus

have both positive and negative economic

out-comes as well as socio-cultural, political and

environmental implications (Collins-Kreiner,

2010a) that call for planning and managing

(Woodward, 2004; Raj and Morpeth, 2007)

Impacts intensify with the volume of pilgrims,

necessitating effective organization (Shinde,

2010) A sustainable approach to management

and development is desirable (Gupta, 1999) as

it is for festivals and events generally (Getz,

2009) and tourism as a whole (UNEP, 2005),

but not easily achieved and implemented

(Welford et al., 1999).

The strands in thinking summarized above

represent a foundation for this study, which

discusses central issues of pilgrimage tourism

with specifi c reference to the hajj Key concerns

to be addressed are demand, the religious–

secular nexus, organization and management,

and sustainable development The fi rst two

research themes are perhaps more prominent

in the literature and the intention is that the

review of the hajj presented in this paper will

add particularly to understanding of the

prac-tical dilemmas attendant on the mass

move-ment of people for religious purposes and

approaches to meeting the challenges

DEMAND FOR THE HAJJ

Demand is partly determined by the size of the

global Muslim population, estimated to be one

and a half billion, who mostly live in

Organiza-tion of Islamic Conference (OIC) member

countries with substantial minorities residing

elsewhere (Pew Forum, 2009) Most Muslims

are Sunnis, but about 10–15% belong to the

Shia or Shiite sect, and the two are divided,

sometimes violently, by opposing convictions

about who should have succeeded

Moham-med, regarded as the last Prophet of Allah or

God, on his death in around 632 AD (Armanios,

2004) Mohammed was born in Mecca and is

buried in nearby Medina Both are located in

present-day Saudi Arabia, as shown on the

map in Figure 1, where the population is

largely Sunni Irrespective of sectarian affi

lia-tion, Islam involves codes of thought and

conduct that pervade all aspects of life tions are derived from the holy book of the

Instruc-Quran and the sunna (customs) of Mohammed

expressed in his statements and those of his companions (Esposito, 2002) Submission ensures correct living according to Sharia, an Arabic word meaning the ‘clear, well-trodden path to water’ (BBC, 2002), yet interpretations and enforcement vary Middle East theocracies such as Iran and Saudi Arabia where Sharia is strictly applied contrast with less conservative regimes in the predominantly Muslim South East Asian states of Indonesia and Malaysia (Martin, 2004; Hassan, 2005)

Religious strictures have ramifi cations for Muslims as tourists and residents of destina-

tions (Syed, 2001; Hashim et al., 2007), and the

label of Islamic tourism is employed to refer to services and activities believed to be and advertised as compliant with the religion (Al-Hamarneh, 2008; OIC, 2008) Travel has a reli-gious signifi cance historically among Muslims

as a means through which they can come closer

to God (Timothy and Iverson, 2006), and it is endorsed for trade and learning (Aziz, 2001), while modern-day Muslims are agreed to be enthusiastic leisure travellers (Euromonitor, 2008) Pilgrimage is a notable facet of Islamic Figure 1 Saudi Arabia Source: University of Texas Libraries (2010)

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544 J C Henderson

tourism (Eickleman and Piscatori, 1990;

Bhard-waj, 1998) and performance of the hajj to Mecca

is the fi fth pillar of Islam after the profession

of monotheistic faith, acceptance of the daily

ritual of fi ve prayers, giving of alms and fasting

during Ramadan (Rowley, 1997) Umrah

denotes voluntary trips to the holy sites and

visits to the shrines of holy personages are also

known as ziyara (Kessler, 1992) There are

several renowned destinations, and Iran and

Iraq, for instance, contain sites revered by

members of the Shia branch of the religion as

do Pakistan, Syria and Turkey (Rashid, 2007)

However, the location of Mecca and Medina in

Saudi Arabia mean that the kingdom is the

primary focus of Islamic pilgrimage

Almost half of the approximately 11.6 million

foreign arrivals to Saudi Arabia in 2008 were

motivated by religion and their spending

rep-resented 75% of the total Mecca attracted 6.6

million while Medina received 238 000

(Euro-monitor, 2009a) The picture is similar for

domestic travel, and 39% and 13% of all 11.4

million trips made in 2008 were to the

prov-inces of Mecca and Medina respectively Many

of these will have been religious tourists, who,

as a group, accounted for 40% of resident

spending that year (Euromonitor, 2009b) Hajj

pilgrims rose from 1.9 million in 1996 to 2.2

million in 2006 (Ministry of Hajj, 2010a) and

again in the next two years The fi gure dipped

slightly in 2009 due to fears about the H1N1

virus, but 2.3 million were still recorded; of

these, almost 700 000 were reported to be from

within the kingdom (Al Jazeera, 2009) Looking

ahead, new inbound demand will be

stimu-lated by the expanding Muslim population,

and domestic travel is also predicted to grow

(Euromonitor, 2009b) Participation is not

restricted by income, yet the hajj can be

expen-sive and makes heavy fi nancial demands on

the poorest of pilgrims, who may rely on

chari-table assistance

THE RELIGIOUS–SECULAR NEXUS

The qualities of the hajj would seem to

severely circumscribe any role for the secular

in incentive and action, although due regard

must be given by travellers to practical matters

(Shubber, 2010) It is performed during the

twelfth and fi nal month of the Islamic lunar

calendar year, climaxing on days 9–13 (Rashid, 2007) Islamic tradition traces its origins back

to around 2000 BC and the story of Ibrahim (Abraham), who left his wife and son, Ishmael,

in the desert on the instructions of God Ishmael and his mother survived after a miraculous discovery of water, and Ibrahim was told by God to build a shrine in remem-brance The small structure erected by Ibrahim and Ishmael was the Kaaba or Cube, now at the heart of the Grand Mosque, and Mecca prospered thereafter The hajj also recalls the life of Mohammed, who was compelled to leave Mecca for Medina, returning later with his followers He is said to have removed numerous idols left at the Kaaba by non-Muslim pilgrims and rededicated it as the house of Allah, to which Muslims have fl ocked

in the ensuing centuries (Grey, 2010)

Completion of the pilgrimage is complex and schools of Islamic thought differ over some details (Peters, 1994) Nevertheless, there

is an established routine of routes and rituals that commemorate Ibrahim’s surrender to God (Shariati, 2005; Hammoudi, 2006) The fi rst critical stage on reaching the outskirts of Mecca

is entering a sacred state of equality before Allah, which is marked by the donning of plain robes, although some elect to attire themselves thus at the beginning of their journey Suitably dressed and abiding by certain additional rules

of personal behaviour specifi c to the hajj, grims proceed eight kilometres from Mecca to the tent city of Mina on foot, or by bus or car They travel on at dawn to the Plain of Arafat,

pil-a distpil-ance of 14.4 kilometres, where pil-a dpil-ay is spent in prayer before traversing a further nine kilometres to Muzdalifah and sleeping out-doors Mina is returned to at daybreak, which heralds the Eid-al-Adha festival when a stoning

of the devil ceremony is held on the Jamarat Bridge Animals are sacrifi ced, pilgrims usually paying to have this done in their names Par-ticipants continue to Mecca in order to circle seven times around the Kaaba in an anti-clock-wise direction, kissing or pointing to the Black Stone in the corner They also walk seven times between the now partially levelled former hills

of Al-Safah and Al-Marwah, ground that him’s wife reputedly ran across in her search for water, and the drinking of water from the Zamzam Well in the Grand Mosque is another

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Ibra-The Management of Religious Tourism 545

DOI: 10.1002/jtr

important custom The remaining time is spent

in Mina, with participants sometimes

repeat-ing the devil stonrepeat-ing rite, and Mecca for a last

circulation of the Kaaba While not a

stipula-tion of the formal hajj, many pilgrims then visit

the tomb of Mohammed in the Mosque of the

Prophet in Medina and the city’s other shrines

(Al Jazeera, 2009; BBC, 2009; Royal Embassy of

Saudi Arabia, 2010)

Participants can thus be regarded as

tradi-tional pilgrims, confounding the notion of

de-differentiation of religious and secular

travellers (Collins-Kreiner, 2010b) Indeed,

curious non-Muslims are barred from

observ-ing and cannot enter the holy cities even

outside the pilgrimage season At the same

time, Muslims may have more worldly

con-cerns such as those about material comfort

when travelling and pre-hajj and post-hajj

travel and amusements (Ministry of Hajj,

2010b) Completion of the hajj might also be

perceived to satisfy feelings of personal pride

and confer benefi ts of enhanced social

stand-ing, sentiments that have a less spiritual

dimen-sion However, opportunities to enjoy more

secular diversions are restricted in Saudi

Arabia by political and socio-cultural

circum-stances that determine the experience of the

pilgrim and other visitors (Zamani-Farahini

and Henderson, 2010)

Saudi Arabia is defi ned by the power of the

ruling Al Saud dynasty and the state’s version

of Islam, refl ected in the fi rst objective of the

Eighth Development Plan to ‘safeguard Islamic

teachings and values, enhance national unity,

security and social stability, and to fi rmly

establish the Arab and Islamic identity of the

Kingdom’ (Ministry of Economy and

Plan-ning, 2005, p 639) The culture inhibits forms

of leisure tourism familiar in Westernized

soci-eties, and there is reluctance to admit overseas

visitors from beyond the Muslim world due to

anxieties about un-Islamic infl uences Strict

rules such as those about female dress and the

ban on alcohol consumption and certain public

entertainments have further discouraged

arriv-als and investment The oil-rich state arriv-also has

had little reason to covet the fi nancial returns

that can accrue from tourism development and

that explain the priority allocated to the

indus-try in many countries (Sadi and Henderson,

2005)

Nevertheless, there is awareness that oil reserves are fi nite and that tourism has poten-tial as an economic diversifi cation tool (Minis-try of Economy and Planning, 2005) Its value

as an employer is another factor in making, given escalating unemployment among the burgeoning younger generation (Orbasli and Woodward, 2008) Tourism offi -cials are also seeking to alleviate the ineffi cien-cies of excess accommodation supply outside the peak pilgrimage period through product development and marketing Overall, the emphasis is on domestic travel and careful exploitation of cultural and natural heritage resources (Burns, 2007; Zamani-Farahani and Henderson, 2010) A new strategy formulated

policy-in 2008 anticipates modest growth, capitalizpolicy-ing

on shorter stay pilgrims and encouraging them

to prolong their visit and enjoy pursuits lated directly to religion (Euromonitor, 2009c) However, travel for the reasons of religion and especially the hajj is and will remain at the forefront, making organizational and manage-ment demands on the authorities that are unparalleled in pilgrimage tourism

unre-ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENTThe hajj has a long history (Peters, 1994; Bianchi, 2004) and was once organized infor-mally whereby local family clans took charge

of separate components (Woodward, 2004) Diffi culties of making the journey and a lack of supporting amenities limited pilgrim numbers, yet these were still sizeable Circumstances changed in 1932 after the founding of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by Ibn Saud, who was to become King Abdul Aziz The Saudi Arabian royal family claimed guardianship of the holy sites, and, according to current gover-nance statutes, ‘the State shall assume the responsibility of serving the two Holy Mosques, shall take full care of pilgrims and shall recon-struct the two Holy Mosques and provide ser-vices thereto It shall provide security and care for the visitors thereof to enable them to perform Hajj, Umrah and visit the Prophet’s Mosque in peace and tranquility’ (Ministry of Hajj, 2010b)

Responsibility for hajj management belongs

to the Ministry of Pilgrimage, supervised by the Supreme Hajj Committee, which reports to

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546 J C Henderson

the king as Custodian of the Two Holy

Mosques It co-ordinates arrangements at

home and overseas, and deals with planning,

implementation and supervision Other

minis-tries with a part to play are those of Health,

Information and Culture, Defence and

Avia-tion, Interior, Religious Affairs, and

Telecom-munications and Information Technology

There is a Ministry of Islamic Affairs,

Endow-ments, Call and Guidance, which cares for

mosques and manages their endowments and

assets (Ministry of Hajj, 2010b) Co-operation

among these parties and others such as the

National Guard and KSA Red Crescent in

preparation for and operation of the annual

event is vital and ongoing An insight into the

public costs incurred in enabling visitors to

‘perform the rites smoothly and comfortably’

is the estimated fi nancial requirement of SR14

877 million (US$3967 million) for the ‘religious

services sector’ stipulated in the Eighth

Devel-opment Plan, which ran from 2005 until 2009

(Ministry of Economy and Planning, 2005)

Private enterprise contributes by supplying

regular tourist amenities of accommodation,

transport and other services, and the

involve-ment of businesses outside the tourism

indus-try should not be overlooked Modernity and

tradition converge in the twenty-fi rst century

hajj and Saudi Arabia’s second largest

telecom-munications company reportedly installed free

Wi-Fi at three sacred sites in 2009, hailed as

‘welcome news for those relying on I-phones

for hajj guidance’ (Al Jazeera, 2009) At the

same time, the Ministry of Hajj acknowledges

that commercial and non-commercial interests

must be suitably balanced, and strict

guide-lines for hajj missions are set out in a 25-point

document intended to ensure that ‘religious

duties are not transformed into a commercial

commodity’ (Ministry of Hajj, 2010b)

Offi cial control is strictly exercised, starting

with a quota mechanism that determines

pilgrim entry into Saudi Arabia Countries are

allocated approximately one place for every

thousand Muslim residents, often leading to

some form of lottery Applicants for a hajj visa

must consult a licensed agency in their home

nation, and these agencies have to furnish

Saudi offi cials, who encourage pre-departure

education sessions, with full details of the trip

Saudi Arabian hajj travel companies, several of

which have been at work for hundreds of years and remain in the hands of the same families, are also licensed Upon the arrival of the pil-grims of multifarious backgrounds, the author-ities have to try to meet a wide range of needs and expectations, communicating information

to all and rendering guidance where ate Lost pilgrims and complaints must be dealt with and over 60 centres offer reception, help, monitoring and support (Royal Embassy

appropri-of Saudi Arabia, 2010)

Handling the infl ux of millions of pilgrims

is an exceptional logistical exercise, and, again, there is evidence of how technology is being applied to the running of centuries-old tradi-tions This trend and the scale of the operation

is disclosed by a government account of how

‘on the way from Jeddah to Makkah along the modern superhighway, pilgrims board one of the fl eet of 15,000 buses assigned to the Hajj This vast concourse of vehicles approaches Mina where most of the pilgrims are housed

in the thousands of air-conditioned tents that stretch to the limits of Mina Valley Food is prepared in hundreds of kitchens spread throughout Mina and distributed among the tents Thousands of drinking fountains and wash areas are located throughout the tent city There are hundreds of medical clinics that sup-plement the hospitals in Makkah and Arafat Banks of telephones are located in all the pil-grimage sites’ On the Plain of Arafat, ‘thou-sands of sprinklers (are) placed atop 30-foot poles and spaced some 50 feet apart, which spread a fi ne mist of water to provide coolness Millions of containers of chilled water are dis-tributed from refrigerated trucks located along the pilgrim route’ About 100 000 security and response personnel were deployed in 2009, assisted by helicopters and closed-circuit television cameras (Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, 2010)

Despite these arrangements, hajj pants still confront discomfort and dangers The pilgrimage is a physically exacting journey

partici-of over 80 kilometres in its entirety undertaken mostly on foot with risks of injury and disease, which are exacerbated by the immense crowds

(Ahmed et al., 2006) Movement of so many

people and their dense concentration in space and time engenders actual and potential hazards, particularly at the bottlenecks that

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The Management of Religious Tourism 547

DOI: 10.1002/jtr

occur where rituals have to be enacted There

have been serious accidents in modern times

due to stampedes, the worst in 1990 when an

estimated 1400 died in one of the underground

tunnels designed to ameliorate overcrowding

The latest incident in 2006 left 345 dead and

600 injured (Woodward, 2004; Al Jazeera, 2009)

The importance of a satisfactory safety regime

is appreciated and the offi cial ‘future vision’ is

‘based on continuously conducting studies

and research to fi nd solutions to existing

prob-lems; particularly those of awareness,

guid-ance, transport, overstay, and serious accidents

caused by congestion’ (Ministry of Economy

and Planning, 2005, p 654) Another key

dimension of this vision is capacity growth, the

pursuit of which is outlined in the next section,

where questions of sustainability are also

raised

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT?

The holy cities of Mecca and Medina and their

mosques have evolved over the years in

response to changing times, but the accession

of King Abdul Aziz was a turning point as

previously noted Accommodation, transport,

health care and sanitation facilities for pilgrims

were built and considerable sums were

subse-quently spent on the modernization of airports,

seaports and road networks and provision of

apartments and hotels Mosque capacity was

increased at an initial cost of more than US$27

billion and Mecca’s Grand Mosque and the

Prophet’s Mosque in Medina were able to hold

more than one million and over half a million

respectively by the 1990s; comparable fi gures

for the 1930s were 48 000 and 17 000 (Royal

Embassy of Saudi Arabia, 2010) Structural

modifi cations include the erection of

walk-ways at fi ve levels on the Jamarat Bridge,

which enable the passage of about 200 000

pil-grims every hour (Al Jazeera, 2009) The

origi-nal pillars were also replaced by long walls in

2004 to facilitate and accelerate completion of

the stoning ceremony Extra escalators,

heat-resistant fl oor tiles and one of the ‘world’s

largest air-conditioning units’ (Ministry of

Hajj, 2010c) have been introduced in the Grand

Mosque for the comfort and safety of pilgrims

With regard to transport, private cars have

been barred on some sections of the route to

relieve road congestion, and there are plans for

a rail link serving principal venues which, in theory, would render 53 000 vehicles redun-dant (Al Jazeera, 2009)

Upgrading and enlargement of the mosque precincts was accompanied by a series of con-struction schemes overseen by the governor of Mecca and Medina, then one of King Abdul Aziz’s sons An ‘explosion of development in the region’ ensued and holy city property became ‘some of the most valuable in the world, offering lucrative business and patron-age opportunities to both private Saudi inves-tors and overseas development companies’

An example is the King Abdul Endowment Project (KAEP) adjacent to the King Abdul Aziz Gate of the Grand Mosque, ‘comprising more than 40 high-rise towers, hotels, conven-tion and conference centres and prayer facili-ties for 200,000 people’ (Times Online, 2007) The ‘iconic Abraj Al Bail Complex’ is part of the KAEP and incorporates the 577-metre-high Makkah Clock Royal Hotel with 76 storeys, 858 rooms, a 40-metre clock ‘visible from 17 kilo-metres away and more than fi ve times larger than Big Ben in London’, a lunar observation centre and an Islamic museum (Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, 2008) Media reports in late

2009 describe a US$130 billion ‘facelift’ for Mecca with 40 major projects underway, time-tabled to be ready within the next 10 years Large construction sites are ubiquitous, illus-trated by that near the Grand Mosque launched

by the current king, Abdullah It covers 30 000 square metres and will house 55 000 pilgrims and visitors in 11 residential towers with 7000 rooms and a prayer area for 30 000 There will also be 1900 lavatories and parking for 560 cars and 40 buses (Arab News, 2008) Extension of the Grand Mosque by 400 000 square metres is planned with the intention of admitting fi ve million pilgrims

The Mayor of Mecca has spoken publicly about the urgency of such steps in view of the spread of Islam, asserting that objects indis-pensable to the hajj such as the Kaaba and the Zamzam Well will remain untouched, while change is inevitable due to essential housing, transportation and infrastructure ‘megaproj-ects’ (Al Jazeera, 2009) The probability of many more pilgrims in the years ahead justi-

fi es ‘commensurate expansion of services;

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548 J C Henderson

improvement of performance of the various

agencies involved; building more facilities;

and providing qualifi ed cadres and the

neces-sary machinery and technology’ (Ministry of

Economy and Planning, 2005, p 654)

Altera-tions to the landscape will therefore continue,

further upsetting traditional patterns whereby

mosques are located in the centre of towns and

provided for by their immediate

neighbour-hoods (Orbasli, 2000) Mecca’s Grand Mosque

already ‘sits as an island surrounded by vast

road networks that are able to move pilgrims

to and from the sites effi ciently and a wall of

luxury hotels for the top end of the market’

(Woodward, 2004, p 184) Similar

circum-stances exist in Medina where the old district

servicing the mosque and its pilgrims has

dis-appeared (Bianca, 2000) Vernacular

architec-ture is a rarity and there has been censure from

architectural historians and other Muslims

about the treatment and condition of their

heri-tage (Al Jazeera, 2009), exemplifi ed by the

demolition in 2002 of the nineteenth-century

Ottoman al-Ajyad fortress in Mecca to make

way for multimillion dollar accommodation

(Burns, 2007)

Ambitious programmes therefore appear to

have adverse consequences for the historic

and social fabric of the holy cities (Orbasli,

2007) and to be putting pressure on resources

in the pilgrimage zone, where emphasis by

government is on commercial development

and amenity provision, a strategy in which

built heritage has ‘always come second’

(Woodward, 2004, p 184) The lower priority

allocated to protection puts structures,

envi-rons, ambience and perhaps even the quality

of the spiritual experience at some risk from

the encroachment and impingement of new

and unsympathetic edifi ces Ongoing building

work may also prove disruptive and

distract-ing for pilgrims and residents Saudi Arabia’s

political system inhibits opposition to formal

decisions and the government claims that

‘expansion of the Two Holy Mosques is a

mon-umental achievement and evidence of immense

care for Hajj and Umrah’ (Ministry of Economy

and Planning, 2005, p 648) It contends that

steps to maximize participation and make

pil-grims more comfortable on their journeys are

to be welcomed and that the intangible

sancti-fi ed aura of the pilgrimage environment can

be retained as its tangible facets are adapted to the modern era The stance diverges from much thinking about heritage conservation, particularly in Western Europe, and Orbasli (2007, p 168) writes of ‘an exaggerated concern

to keep everything as it is, which may not be possible in another cultural context’ such

as that of the Middle East However, it can

be argued that there is a threshold beyond which enlargement and adaptation become destructive

CONCLUSIONThis paper has analysed the hajj in terms of important pilgrimage tourism issues, includ-ing demand, which is shown to be high in cor-respondence with the sizeable worldwide Muslim population Participants occupy the religious pole of the sacred–secular spectrum, countering ideas about a confl ation, and secular tourists are excluded Unlike much travel attributed to religion in which there is an element of volition, participation at least once

is mandated by Islamic teaching and is a core tenet of the faith The reigning monarchy of the host country has appointed itself custodian of the sites at the centre of the pilgrimage, and authorities are heavily involved in controlling operations, refl ective of the character of the government and political culture of a theoc-racy in which the state and religion are inextri-cably linked The hajj is further distinguished

by its scale, which creates formidable logistical problems as well as commercial opportunities and may endanger pilgrim health and safety Prospective pilgrims far outnumber annual allotments, necessitating selection mecha-nisms, and the imbalance between applicants and vacancies is likely to intensify in the future

as demographic and socio-economic trends lead to larger and more prosperous Muslim communities globally

Another notable feature of the occasion is that offi cials are spared the confl icts frequently seen at religious attractions between the behav-iour of visitors who come as supplicants and those for whom the appeal is more secular Nevertheless, while individuals are united by

their religion (Clingingsmith et al., 2009), they

exhibit a diversity that has ramifi cations for organizers Some belong to Islamic societies

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The Management of Religious Tourism 549

DOI: 10.1002/jtr

‘still suffering from poverty, indigence and

cul-tural backwardness’, may have a ‘low level of

cultural awareness’ and be old and disabled

Others are more sophisticated travellers, living

in economically advanced nations, who are

‘well aware of the distinctive and top services’

found internationally (Ministry of Hajj, 2010b)

Pilgrims thus come from different countries

and cultures, speak an assortment of languages

and sometimes possess insuffi cient knowledge

and understanding about the rituals

Despite its uniqueness, the hajj shares certain

attributes with pilgrimages embarked on by

adherents of other established religions such as

movement, the completion of standard

obser-vances and hoped for meeting of religious and

personal needs A degree of organization is a

common requirement and services are

pro-vided by specialist operators Public sector

agencies also have management and planning

responsibilities, the nature of which partly

depend on visitor volumes and the features of

pilgrimage destinations Political stability at

the destination is usually a prerequisite and it

should be remembered that this is not the

pre-serve of Western liberal democracies In

addi-tion, the hajj is indicative of some of the tensions

between conserving and using heritage These

are complicated in cases of pilgrimage when

usage is not driven by economic and political

imperatives alone and religious considerations

may exert a powerful infl uence

The Saudi authorities demonstrate

consider-able organizational capability in the hosting of

the event, from which lessons can be learned,

although the degree of government control

and wealth set the regime apart from others

Co-operative mechanisms exist within

govern-ment and between the public and private

sectors, and function internationally There is

willingness to invest, sometimes in

combina-tion with commercial enterprises, and modern

technology has been harnessed to facilitate

operations Circumstances are carefully

moni-tored and research undertaken as a basis for

informed decision-making about future

pil-grimages Forward planning strives to augment

carrying capacities and there is an absence of

sentimentality in the pragmatic decisions of

Saudi offi cials who are prepared to sanction

the loss of certain aspects of heritage

land-scapes to maximize Muslim involvement

However, the longer term effectiveness of approaches to reconciling conservation and development, and managing the hajj overall are debatable Questions arise about the out-comes of current policies given that there are limits to growth imposed by the numbers of pilgrims that the holy sites and routes, and their natural and cultural milieu can satisfac-torily accommodate Exceeding these con-straints could mean irreversible damage and the marring of pilgrim satisfaction, both mate-rial and spiritual Destinations are already under considerable strain, with a high rate of resource consumption, albeit concentrated during the pilgrimage season Concerns about sustainability extend beyond the physical environment, infrastructure and public ser-vices to matters of religious and cultural tradi-tions and their settings, which are threatened

by further development and tion Modernization and new construction may overwhelm the reminders of the past and repositories of heritage, which give meaning to the present and are of critical importance to future generations Authorities thus have to strive to balance respect for and maintenance

commercializa-of traditional practices and places with the demands of a modern pilgrimage industry and

an ever-expanding mass market of pilgrims in

an increasingly globalized world

The contemporary hajj and its prospects are therefore interesting topics for study, and research should incorporate the expectations and experiences of those completing the unique journey The perspective of other stakeholders also merits closer examination and particularly that of residents, although the latter is not perhaps so easily assessed in the case of Saudi Arabia The fi ndings of such work would con-tribute to a better appreciation of this excep-tional example of religious tourism within the wider context of Islamic tourism, the ascen-dancy of which is likely to be a signifi cant trend in forthcoming decades

REFERENCESAhmed QA, Arabi YM, Memish ZA 2006 Health

risks at the hajj The Lancet 367: 1008–1015.

Al-Hamarneh A 2008 Islamic Tourism: A Long Term Strategy of Tourist Industries in the Arab World After 9/11 Centre for Research on the Arab World

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