Framing the visitor experience in sacred places

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the dimensional structure of visitor experience in a sacred place based on the framing process.Design/methodology/approachMix-method research was conducted in Turkey–Virgin Mary House which featured a sacred and popular tourist destination. Qualitative research, including interviews and expert panels, was used to create a set of knowledge for further analysis. Quantitative research, including two field studies comprising 842 participants, was used to validate the framing of visitor experiences in a sacred place providing reliability and construct validity.FindingsThe six dimensions were found within three framing axes of religious, environmental and organizational: inner experience; religious experience; physical environment; history; tour organization and service experience.Originality/valueCurrent studies on visitor experience in a sacred place have mainly focused on emotions, motivations or physical dimensions. By synthesising the framing process and theoretical approaches, this study contributes to the literature by analysing the unique characteristics of visitors' experiences in sacred places, regardless of their religious identities.

Designing a tourist experience for numen seekers

“…To design the experience, story and history related to the place, which gives a uniqueness; awe and reverence that stimulate the spiritual feelings; and atmosphere, place and nature-based dimensions, which enrich the symbolic meaning of the place are important constituents for a numen seeker. Therefore, this study's results raise some questions for destination managers to frame the experiences, which is an important process (Bideci and Bideci, 2021) to better understand the tourist experience regarding the following questions:…”

Influence of memorable tourism experience on attitude towards pilgrimage: a moderated-mediation model with memorable religious experience and religiosity

“…The memorable experience at a religious site is not built alone by the religious structure but also by the ease of circulation in the religious precinct, the first visual experience of the religious site/building, its cleanliness, and convenient access routes, etc., are some positive experiences that shape MRE (Bideci and Bideci, 2022). For any visitor to a religious site, the internal religious orientation which confirms the presence of God, has been found to Influence of memorable tourism experience positively impact the mental health of visitors shaping attitudes as faith makes a person optimistic (Huang and Pearce, 2019).…”

“…Religiosity is considered the strongest belief in Islam which permeates every aspect of the believer's life (Subchi et al, 2022). According to Bideci and Bideci (2022), the religious axis discusses how tourists' experiences and attitudes toward returning to sacred sites are influenced by religiosity. Therefore, to enhance tourists' experiences, people at sacred destinations must identify and customize services and goods to a variety of visitors (Boon et al, 2020).…”

“…Observing the lack of studies involving the impact of social factors, such as religion, that affect MTEs, a new concept of memorable religious experience (MRE) was introduced to study experiences in a religious setting (Kamath et al, 2023;Kim, 2018). Even non-religious tourists may have spiritual feelings and comparable religious experiences due to the spiritual atmosphere (Bideci and Bideci, 2022). Hence, memorable religious experiences can be a crucial driver of attitude towards recommend intention at religious sites.…”

“…Hence, in this study, MRE is expected to mediate the relationship between MTE and ATT to evaluate tourists' experiences, particularly about religious places. Taking a cue from Bideci and Bideci (2022), based on the religious, environmental, and organizational axis, the relationship between MTE and ATT toward visiting religious places will certainly be influenced by MREs. Hence, H2 has been postulated-H2.…”