Balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia

Among the many personas of cultural heritage offered to global tourism, religious or faith-based tourism is perhaps the least prominent.However, this often-ignored component of tourism resources is turning into a booming business, as can be seen in the case of Mecca and Jerusalem. In essence, religi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kasim, Azilah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Routledge 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://repo.uum.edu.my/12341/1/193.pdf
http://repo.uum.edu.my/12341/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2011.562437
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
id my.uum.repo.12341
record_format eprints
spelling my.uum.repo.123412014-10-23T03:02:19Z http://repo.uum.edu.my/12341/ Balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia Kasim, Azilah GN Anthropology Among the many personas of cultural heritage offered to global tourism, religious or faith-based tourism is perhaps the least prominent.However, this often-ignored component of tourism resources is turning into a booming business, as can be seen in the case of Mecca and Jerusalem. In essence, religious tourism is a good example of pro-poor tourism because it can generate good tourism income, develop the local economy, and bring about other possible benefits such as employment and local access to outside goods and services.However, the excitement of making profit from religious tourism should not be allowed to overshadow its traditional role of promoting spiritual healing and piety.This article argues that understanding the significance of a religious event amongst its followers will preserve the real purpose of religious travel and tourism and provide insights of a balanced management approach of a religious tourism destination.Using Malaysia as a study context, the article highlights qualitative findings from an open-ended questions survey on Hindu parents of University Utara Malaysia students.The findings highlight the meaning and importance of Thaipusam amongst the devotees, the balance of tourism and religious activities while at the sacred site as well as issues, concerns and improvements required to increase their quality of experience in Batu Caves.The article ends with a discussion on the implications of the findings on the management of a religious tourism destination. Routledge 2011 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://repo.uum.edu.my/12341/1/193.pdf Kasim, Azilah (2011) Balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 20 (3-4). pp. 441-456. ISSN 1936-8623 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2011.562437 doi:10.1080/19368623.2011.562437
institution Universiti Utara Malaysia
building UUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Utara Malaysia
content_source UUM Institutionali Repository
url_provider http://repo.uum.edu.my/
language English
topic GN Anthropology
spellingShingle GN Anthropology
Kasim, Azilah
Balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia
description Among the many personas of cultural heritage offered to global tourism, religious or faith-based tourism is perhaps the least prominent.However, this often-ignored component of tourism resources is turning into a booming business, as can be seen in the case of Mecca and Jerusalem. In essence, religious tourism is a good example of pro-poor tourism because it can generate good tourism income, develop the local economy, and bring about other possible benefits such as employment and local access to outside goods and services.However, the excitement of making profit from religious tourism should not be allowed to overshadow its traditional role of promoting spiritual healing and piety.This article argues that understanding the significance of a religious event amongst its followers will preserve the real purpose of religious travel and tourism and provide insights of a balanced management approach of a religious tourism destination.Using Malaysia as a study context, the article highlights qualitative findings from an open-ended questions survey on Hindu parents of University Utara Malaysia students.The findings highlight the meaning and importance of Thaipusam amongst the devotees, the balance of tourism and religious activities while at the sacred site as well as issues, concerns and improvements required to increase their quality of experience in Batu Caves.The article ends with a discussion on the implications of the findings on the management of a religious tourism destination.
format Article
author Kasim, Azilah
author_facet Kasim, Azilah
author_sort Kasim, Azilah
title Balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia
title_short Balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia
title_full Balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia
title_fullStr Balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia
title_full_unstemmed Balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia
title_sort balancing tourism and religious experience: understanding devotees' perspectives on thaipusam in batu caves, selangor, malaysia
publisher Routledge
publishDate 2011
url http://repo.uum.edu.my/12341/1/193.pdf
http://repo.uum.edu.my/12341/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2011.562437
_version_ 1644280886614556672
score 13.144533