Developing tendencies of religious tourism in the world

Developing tendencies of religious tourism in the world.
Yulduz Khayitova ,
First grade master, faculty of Tourism and Finance
Bukhara State University
Bukhara/Uzbekistan


Key words: tourism, pilgrimage, religious tourism, blogs, European Market.
Tourism is one of the rapidly developing sectors of economy in many parts of the world. Development of tourism not only alters the environment, but also changes the landscape of the place where it occurs. Because of its financial attractiveness the competition in tourism market is also increasing, and tour operators of touristic destinations are trying hard to find and create new tour packages, tour routes to attract tourists to their sites and take larger share in world tourism market. One of this new tourism type is religious tourism.
In fact, religious tourism is not a new concept. People have been traveling to religious sites for ages, but usually, this travel was restricted to people from the highest echelons of society. These people used to club religion, culture, and leisure activities to enjoy their travel. Today, religious tourism is a niche market, with people traveling within their country and overseas to specifically visit religious destinations because of their beliefs.
In general, when a person travels to a pilgrimage site primarily based on their religious belief, it is known as religious tourism. These travelers perform pilgrimage as a way to worship and enjoy salvation. However, there are Muslim and Jewish travelers who go for pilgrimage because it is obligated by their religion.
And today the religious tourism market covers a broad range of tourism products, including pilgrimage trips, visiting sacred sites, church tourism, travel for worship and religious missions. According to the religion, country and pilgrims the religious tourism market can be divided into several categories or destinations. For example, a large part of European residents are Christian, so halal tourism has been growing in the last few years, as well as the demand for spiritual tourism. Important target markets in Europe include Germany, the United Kingdom and France. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the religious tourism market.
In order to develop the religious tourism market and target it through our country – Uzbekistan, there is need to do research on other foreign countries experience in religious tourism.
After researching statistics and religious tour operators around the globe, it has become clear that, in Uzbekistan we do need create special web sites, special tour operators and agencies, hotels and other services, as well in order to increase the capacity of pilgrimage tourism in our country.
It is not a secret that, before visiting a certain country guests must be aware of the religion aspects of specific destinations, and make sure to take into account all aspects of it, especially host country’s habits and believes. This includes anything from food to the time of certain events, to the music played, to religious calendars. If not all parts of your product are well established and connected, you may lose customers. So in Uzbekistan there should be created special blogs, chat rooms, where travelers can talk and ask interested them questions from localities.
Another point is that, different religious people need different approach to fulfill their needs and wishes, so in Europe there are several tour operators for various groups, such as tour operators that organise faith trips to see what Globus Faith focuses on Christians, Dham Yatra on Hinduists, and Asia Buddhist on Buddhists.
In conclusion, in order to rise the level of pilgrims in Uzbekistan several Steps must be taken. First of all, Uzbekistan religious tourism market niche should be segmented according to the religion of pilgrims. Secondly, tour operators and other sectors in tourism must be creative about possible streams of revenue. Among the many goods and services related to religious or spiritual tourism, souvenir items, religious books, outlets for halal or kosher food, faith-based music, spiritual or faith-based centres in local communities should be considered.