The Potential for Northern Ireland to Promote Politico-Religious Tourism: An Industry Perspective

Abstract

Recent years have seen cultural heritage tourism mature as a distinct body of academic inquiry. Culture, however, is a broad concept. As a consequence, cultural heritage tourism can be segmented into more specific subcategories. Among these are religious and political tourism. A review of the literature on political tourism and religious tourism reveals that tourists who have interest in things political and religious share similar motivations and often make use of similar attractions. However, the interrelation between religious and political tourism is an issue that has barely been addressed within academia. Possible connection here, it is argued by the authors, to be particularly evident in Northern Ireland. This study presents the views of public and private tourism sector organizations across Northern Ireland on the potential to link political and religious tourism as a definable niche product, what the authors have labeled as politico-religious tourism and investigates their willingness to collaborate to develop this new niche product.

An Investigation of the Differences that Exist between Generations in Relation to Supporting Dark Tourism in Northern Ireland

“…This may be the most prominent issue when looking at dark tourism in Northern Ireland. There is a significant reluctance among the public sector to market Northern Ireland as a hub for dark tourism sites (Simone-Charteris and Boyd, 2011). Many believe that as the Troubles are still relatively recent, using sites for dark tourism purposes intensifies sectarianism and generates division among the communities (Crooke, 2001).…”

Towards a post-conflict tourism recovery framework

“…Second, research has developed around the phenomena of dark and political tourism (e.g., Lennon & Foley, 2000;Miles, 2002;Cohen, 2011;Simone-Charteris & Boyd, 2011;Stone, 2012;Isaac & Ashworth, 2012), examining them from both supply-side (conflict sites as key attractors) and demand-driven perspective (reasons for visiting including, educational, peacekeeping, rebuilding, commemorative, showing empathy, authenticity, curiosity and thrill of political violence).…”

Development and validation of an experience scale for pilgrimage tourists

“…Often, individuals who are pilgrims and tourists are referred to as pilgrimage tourists (Turner & Turner, 1978). Today, these tourists focus more on daily life in destinations where they can discover, experience, participate, learn, and be included (Robinson & Novelli, 2005;Simone-Charteris & Boyd, 2011). Pilgrimage tourism involves traveling to experience religion and culture while becoming immersed in local everyday life; most pilgrimage tourists proceed through a temporary or permanent transformation in their life attitude and connection to the sacred and God (Pavicic et al, 2007).…”