According to (Swarbrooke and Horner, 1999:152) “religious tourism is one of the oldest forms of tourism. It is unique, perhaps, in that it is driven by a sense of duty and obligation rather than a search for pleasure and leisure”. However, this definition is limited, seeing religious tourism in one category only that of pilgrimage, but there are many religious tourists that are not driven by duty and obligations to undertake their journey. Also (Wright, 2007) sees that religious travel is the oldest form of tourism, citing that some, even argue that mass tourism its self started by the religious tourists and it dates back to the old Egyptian civilization when ancient Egyptians were travelling in big numbers to the different temples in order to attend their religious festivals and that to respond to the needs of these big numbers of visitors, business grew up to accommodate the needs of these religious travellers including the arranging of food, transportation, etc.
The Religious Understanding and Tolerance Tour is not, of course, a pilgrimage, it is not for worshipping purposes nor is it just an opportunity to see religious sites. The tour is religious, cultural, educational and historical; it is working to provide the visitor with a unique opportunity to increase their knowledge of different faiths, beliefs, cultures and traditions and with that understanding, to be more tolerant of religious differences. Indeed it is clear that people often travel to different religious and sacred sites, not only for religious reasons or seeking an experience with the religious site in the traditional sense, but also because these religious sites are marketed as historical or cultural attractions to be consumed, It is also clear that these religious sites may be visited because of an educational interest to learn about the history of these sites or to learn and to understand more about a religious faith, its culture and its beliefs rather than being just motivated by pleasure or religious purposes (Oslen and Timothy, 2006). The Religious Understanding and Tolerance tour is targeting this category of tourists, the tourist who has an interest in learning and understanding more about different religions and cultures.
Since the tour consists of visits to sacred places, according to (Shackly, 2001) sacred places can be classified in eleven different categories. All the places on this tour will come under the second category as archaeological sites. The religious sites in the tour were more sacred in the old days, today they have became tourist attractions for their architecture and history more than as places for worshiping but they are still used on rare occasions for worshipping purposes so while the majority of visitors to these places will be tourists who came to the sites with historic-cultural motivations, a minority will be visitors with religious motivations.
There are different motivations for the tourist to visit religious sites, the first motivation that comes to mind is worshipping, the gaining religious experience, but the visitor might be motivated by secular motivation rather than religious or, the main motivation could just be visiting a famous religious heritage site (Shackly, 2001). According to (Richards, 2001 cited by Fernandez et al, 2007a) monuments like cathedrals, churches and mosques are important typology of cultural attractions as they represent the traditional basis of cultural tourism. Also religious sites represent a type of heritage
tourism which become cultural tourism attractions (Smith, 2009) .The visitor to cultural attractions is motivated by an interest to learn about and understand the other cultures and religions, experiencing the atmosphere of the place, learning a new thing and enhancement of self education. These are all possible motivations for the tour, As the tour would be conducted in one day, thus the expected tourist is very likely to be taking a holiday not just to the religious sites mentioned in the beginning of this essay, but to do the tour along side the other iconic culture products in Egypt, the most well known being the pyramids, the Egyptian museum with the King Tut Ankh Amoun treasures.
It is noted that the number of people travelling with purely traditional religious purposes is considerably small so most of the trips will usually be regarded as cultural tourism involving a visit to a religious site, so religious tourism is a part of cultural tourism because religion is an important part of culture and religious sites are an important element of cultural tourism and there is an overlap between religion and culture. In a study conducted in France 2002, it was discovered that 40% of individual cultural tourists visited a religious site in the last 2 years and 50% of the cultural tourists who were travelling in groups visited a religious site with cultural motivations. In Italy, 93% of visitors to religious sites came with cultural motivations (Richards and Fernandes, 2007a). Further evidence came from the ATLAS cultural tourism project 2007, which was conducted in eight different countries,(six Europeans countries plus Mexico and Vietnam) and carried out in 20 different sites with total of 4600 completed surveys showed that 53% of the visitors interviewed were women, that the largest single age was between 20-29 years which made up 30% of visitors, about 70% of visitors have a degree or high degree(50% bachelor degree, 19% master or doctoral degree) which means that most of the visitors to cultural sites attain higher education with good level of cultural capital. Also higher positions, managers and professional made up almost 70% (director or manager 16%, professional 40%, technical 13%). Fewer than 30% had jobs connected to culture and importantly historic and religious sites were amongst the important types of cultural attractions, with 52% to historic sites and 43% to religious sites (Richards, 2007b)
In addition to the religious and cultural nature of the tour. It is also aiming to achieve better understanding for the different religions by giving the visitor the opportunity to learn about other faiths and to increase their understanding which will lead to more tolerance with the aim of spreading peace through tourism. According to (Kelly, 2006a) tourism is growing quickly, the spread of technology and cheap airlines fares with the globalization which is making the world of today a small village, all of that led to a more sophisticated traveller who is seeking more authentic travel experience, therefore this tour will give the opportunity to the tourist to have a deeper experience to discover new issues about different cultures and religions. Although “the concept of „peace through tourism‟ receives little attention in the academic literature on tourism and even less in industry publication” (Kelly, 2006b:2). It does not mean it is not possible, the tour is designed to try and spread more peace between and through the expected visitors. According to (Kelly, 2006b) there is a considerable support at the international level for the view that tourism
can contribute to peace, to make a difference by improving the relationships between the different people around the world.
“The understanding and promotion of ethical values common to humanity, with attitude of tolerance and respect for the diversity of religious, philosophical and moral beliefs, are both the foundation and the consequence of responsible tourism...” (World Tourism Organization, 1999:4).
Tourism is also believed to have a positive impact on the peace of the world because when people travel from their own country to a different country with an honest desire to learn more about other people cultures, the knowledge and understanding about other cultures and religions will grow which is very crucial in building bridges or respect and appreciation between the different people in the world (Goeldner and Ritchie, 2006). “ Tourism is a fundamental human activity engaging social, cultural, religious, economic, educational, environmental, and political values and responsibilities”(Global Summit on Peace through Tourism, 2000:1).
In order to make sure that the cultural product will succeed and to turn the religious sites included in the tour into a real and viable cultural tourism product, there are some steps that have to be done to create a successful cultural tourism attraction. “Tell a story- Make the asset come alive- Make the experience participatory- Make the experience relevant to the tourist- Focus on quality and authenticity” (Mckercher and Cros, 2002:122). Now, it is important to apply these features with the subject tour to see how to convert the assets included in the tour from just historical and religious sites to a successful cultural product.
Tell a story, there are many cultural places around the world e.g. there are thousands of churches, mosques and temples in many places but what will make this tour different is the main idea of the story, the bringing together of the two main elements, enjoying the different architectures from different historical periods with the different religions they represent and the resulting different artistic features, while at the same time understanding and learning more about religions pluralism. “The story may be told in many ways and at many levels so that the consumer can choose which level he or she wishes to engage the place” (Mckercher and Cros, 2002:124). Make the asset come alive, as telling the story will make the places more exciting, interpretation of the tour as well is very important to make the tourist enjoy the tour and feel that he or she went in a new enjoyable experience which will allow learning more directly or indirectly. Using multi faith guides will be the key to this. Make the tour participatory experience, the tourist will have one hour for free time after the tour guide finished the first part of the explanation so the tourist can wander around the area, buying souvenirs, books, photos or can even go to pray whatever his/her religion, Muslim, Christian or Jewish then lunch will be included and it will be in an Egyptian Restaurant overlooking the old Cairo area and serving Egyptian food. With an explanation of where the tradition of the food has come from - and where relevant the religious relevance as well. Make it relevant to the tourist, the tour is designed to get the tourist involved in
a new experience and trying to give the opportunity for the tourist to know more about the other in an interesting and enjoyable tour. Focus on Quality and Authenticity, The tour is aiming to give the tourist a real, authentic experience. According to (Smith, 2009) the literature reviewed different explanations for the term authenticity as it is contested issue which usually depends on the visitor‟s perception, however (Jamal and hill, 2002) divided the authenticity into different categories, the first category is the objective authenticity that usually connected to the physical world like archaeological and historical places, second is the constructed authenticity which is referring to the created events to give the tourist an authentic feeling and this type of authenticity could be socially and politically constructed and the third category is the personal authenticity which represents the emotional and psychological feeling, it is the most complicated and the less researched type of authenticity. The tour is seeking to give the visitors the objective authenticity and the personal authenticity by visiting valuable historical and religious sites that have a real historical value and by trying to let the visitor engaged with these sacred sites emotionally, to add to the knowledge and understanding of the visitor.
The Tour is expecting to attract different market segments because of the variations in the components of the tour which offer cultural experience, religious experience and educational experience, so it is able to attract:
Students and educational tours with age between 20-30 years who are interested to know more and to learn about the different cultures and religions. According to (Cohen, 2006) travelling to gain more understanding and knowledge as a main motivation is increasing and growing very quickly, travellers and students are hoping to get deeper experiences and new understanding about the different cultures of the world. The tour guides who will carry out this tour should be given an intensive training so they will be able to interpret these religious sites included in the tour to enrich the understanding of the tourist about the history. “Travel, religion and education all shares as one of their possible goals a quest for understanding” (Cohen, 2006:80). Also this tour has the potential to attract the cultural Tourists, as Cairo is famous for its historical and cultural products e.g. the pyramids of Giza, the step pyramid and the Egyptian museum so this tour will be offered to the cultural tourists as a part of a whole package tour of Egypt.
Religious tourists, religious tourism in Egypt is growing very quickly especially with the increased numbers of tourists who are visiting Israel, Jordan and Egypt in one religious package and with the available religious package tours like the route of the holy family and the Exodus route. So it will be a new experience and interesting day for the religious tourist to see the different sacred sites in Cairo while they can get the chance to practice worshipping whatever the tourist‟s religion. This type of tourist is very gendered, in the Christian world, the majority are females while in Islam tradition, the majority are males, groups of religious tourists rarely include young people or families with young children, mostly middle aged or elderly people with high educational levels and high incomes(Shackly, 2001).
According to (Shackly, 2001) it is hard to define the market for the product of religious site as markets will always consist of different market segments, some sites will mainly attract international tourists and the others will attract domestic tourists but generally there are two main categories of visitors to religious sites, the first category consists of the visitors who are going to the site with purely religious purposes, the second category consists of the people who are visiting the religious site just as a tourist and mainly motivated with cultural reasons, it is noticed that conventional marketing of religious sites is more concerned with the second category of visitors as they represent the main potential source of revenue. The tour is targeting the second category aimed mainly at the international market as Egypt, a developing country, has limited domestic tourism representing only 12% of the whole Market (Saad, 2004).
Egypt attracted nearly 13 million visitors by the end of 2008 with about $11.5 billion in revenues, Germany, Italy and the UK represented the main market for Egypt as a tourism destination. But new nationalities have also started to visit, 2008 saw 2 million Russian tourists, Czechs visitors increased by 37% and polish by 91%. Much of the recent increase in numbers has come from Egypt‟s efforts in more recent years to try and create a variety of products to attract different categories of tourists beside the antiquities and the cultural attractions, especially by creating big activities in Sharm- El Sheikh and Hurghada to attract the beach tourist. These efforts have met with success, about 70% of visitors now prefer to go to Sharm-El Sheikh or Hurghada by charter carriers for beach holidays with the option to visit Cairo as one day trip to see the pyramids and the Egyptian museum, nevertheless about 30% of visitors start their holiday from Cairo and they stay for at least part of their holiday in Cairo (African Research Bulletin, 2009). As a result the expected market for this product will be to attract the 30% of visitors who stay for more than one day in Cairo, the nationalities will be mainly Germans, Italians, French and British tourists as most of eastern European tourists stay in Sharm-El Sheikh or Hurghada but this tour will still be one of the available one day trips to Cairo.
The tour operators and travel agents will have a crucial role in promoting this tour by including it in their packages to be available for the tourists who visiting Egypt and by promoting it through the internet so it can reach to the customers. Hotels also can promote it by putting the brochures of the tour in the lobby to reach the consumer. There is No entrance fees to all the religious sites mentioned in these tour, so the cost will include the transportation, the local tour guide fee and the Lunch fee, usually to rent a coach which has all the facilitates will cost nearly 1500L.E(£150), for lunch 70L.E(£7) per person, the tour guide in Egypt usually get minimum of 130L.E(£13) per day, but the exact price will depend on the size of the group because the cost of transportation will be different but usually it will be around £20 per person including transportation, Local multi faith tour guides, who speak the language of the tourist, Lunch in old Cairo area.
This product will be added to the cultural products that Egypt can offer, it will sit along side the main iconic products like the pyramids, it will add variety to the Egyptian cultural products currently on offer; it also has cultural, religious and educational dimensions. It is aiming to be an ethical product by achieving the optimum benefits for the host community by using local tour guides, it provides support to the local shopkeepers by providing the tourist with the opportunity to buy souvenirs and other goods from the local shops available near the sites, and lunch will also be local. All of this represents economic benefits for the local community and it will increase the income of the host-community. Also the tour will give back the energy of these religious and old buildings and it will hopefully make the local Egyptians appreciate more their own heritage.
However, there may be some negative impacts like more pollution from the coaches used to transfer the tourists which may affect these historical building and also noise pollution as the only interpretation way will be using tour guides, increasing traffic which in return will have a negative impact on the visitor experience. Also Egypt is an Arab country with 90% of its population is Muslims (CIA, 2005 cited by Timothy and Iverson, 2006) and 10% Christians so some tension may be caused by misbehaving of the tourists in a religious site which may upset the local people e.g. “Kissing or fondling right in the front of a mosque when prayers are going on” (Sindiga, 1996:429 cited by Timothy and Iverson, 2006:189). So to avoid any offence to the local community, the tour guides should give brief explanation for the tourist about the Egyptian traditions and about the local people and how the tourist should behave in the different religious sites in Egypt without causing offence to the local community.
The ministry of culture and the supreme council of antiquities in Egypt are responsible for preserving and conserving all the historical sites in Egypt, it is suggested to control the number of tourists visiting these sites to prevent any damage. At the current time, there is no pressure from tourists on these sites included in the tour but if the number increased and there is danger in these building from tourism so it is suggested to introduce tickets to these areas as it is free of charge for entrance, also can limited the amount of tickets available per day.
Finally, this tour is trying to increase understanding and tolerance between the different people around the world and aiming to have a much wider impact on how people might view the world, every effort no matter how small to make this world a more tolerant peaceful place is worth it.
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