How do tourists perceive churches as tourism destinations? A text mining approach through online reviews

Abstract

Church tourism has gained popularity due to the historical, artistic, and religious significance of churches, contributing significantly to the social and economic sectors. The destination image of churches plays a crucial role in tourism marketing. However, existing literature predominantly relies on traditional methods to study tourists' perception of churches as tourism destinations, with limited analysis of user‐generated content (UGC) like online reviews. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the online reviews of 10 renowned European churches posted on TripAdvisor using text mining techniques. Findings reveal that tourists mainly focus on overall description, visiting experience, architectural design, and surrounding environment of the church, with specific areas of interest for certain churches. The research findings can assist church administrators in formulating sustainable tourism strategies and promoting the development of the church tourism.