THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW RELIGIOUS TRAVEL SEGMENT: UMRAH DO IT YOURSELF TRAVELLERS (DIY)

This research examines the rise of a new religious travel segment – the Umrah Do It Yourself (DIY) travellers. While Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam, Umrah is a minor Muslim pilgrimage that can be undertaken at any time of the year, while still playing a crucial role in the completion of Hajj rituals. In the past, Umrah was managed by an authorised travel agent, who makes all the necessary pilgrimage preparations, from flights to trip itineraries. Recent years have seen an upsurge in travellers who prefer not to utilise the services of such agencies, but instead, to make their own arrangements. The decision by the Saudi Arabian government to launch a Tourist e-Visa in September 2019 has opened a window of opportunity for the legalization of Umrah DIY journeys. The objectives of this study are (i) to explore the travel motives that contribute to the success of the Umrah DIY, and (ii) to explore the factors that support and facilitate the decision for the Umrah DIY. The data were obtained via 20 semi-structured interviews with Umrah DIY travellers. The findings show that flexibility, spirituality, and budget have a crucial impact on travel motivation. Additionally, the findings suggest that information sources, travel quality, companionship/new friendship, and familiarity facilitate the choice of Umrah DIY travel. This research contributes to the growing scholarship on the Muslim travel market beyond Hajj and to studies on independent religious travel. Findings provide an opportunity for suppliers and industry participants to understand the travel motives of this new segment as a basis for producing relevant religious tourism products and services.

EVALUATION OF ARCHITECTURAL COMPONENTS IN BAYUNG GEDE VILLAGE SETTLEMENT, BALI AS A TOURISM OF SPECIAL INTEREST

<p>Special interest tourism is one of the efforts to provide alternative tourist attractions and sustainable tourism development in Bali. Visits of both domestic and foreign tourists to Bali in the last 4 years (2015-2019) have increased by an average of 8%. Now the tourism sector in Bali, especially in Bangli Regency, is starting to investigate or explore the possible development of tourist attractions through the development of tourist villages. In this case, the development of special tourism, including the tourist village of Bayung Gede, Bangli is very dependent on the architectural components of traditional settlements and the traditions of the residents in it as a source of attraction and main attraction for tourists. However, the influence of tourism has led to the transformation of traditional settlements. In this case, the transformation has given rise to a paradoxical phenomenon where on the one hand traditional housing attracts tourists, on the other hand the presence of tourists has led to a transformation of the traditional settlements of an area. The purpose of this study is to examine the architectural components of the Bayung Gede Village settlement as a tourism potential based on special interest tourism and then to find out how far the tourism architectural potential is found and how strong the Bayung Gede Village settlement icon is as a special interest DTW. The method used is a qualitative-exploratory and descriptive method. The results show that the traditional settlement of Bayung Gede Village contains elements of special interest tourism such as elements of novelty seeking, quality seeking, enriching, rewarding, adventuring and learning, so that it has the potential as religious tourism (the existence of four types of graves), culture (settlement and residential layout) and citrus plantation sector agro-tourism in improving the economic sector of the community. Investigation and inventory of Bayung Gede traditional housing is an effort to find a village icon that has prestige that can attract tourists to visit and be able to compete with other tourist villages.</p>

Prospect of Pilgrimage Tourism in Namo Buddha Area, Kavre

This paper tries to find out the prospect of pilgrimage tourism at Namo Buddha, Kavre, Nepal. There is found limited academic work on pilgrimage tourism in Nepal; however, no evidence of study could be traced on Namo Buddha that is based on pilgrimage tourism perspective. A pilgrimage is an ancient form of religious travel where people make a journey to the place of their belief for experiencing spirituality. Namo Buddha is one of the sacred Buddhist shrines and important pilgrimage sites for Buddhists as they believe the relics of the previous life of Lord Buddha are kept at Namo Buddha Stūpa. Namo Buddha stūpa is also considered to be one of the holiest stūpas in Nepal including Svayambhu Stūpa (Svayambhu Mahachaitya) and the Bodhnath Stūpa (Khasti Mahachaitya). This stūpa commemorates the Buddha Śakyamuni’s sacrifice of his body to a starving tigress and her cubs in his previous life. Nepali people call this site Namo Buddha, Newars call Namo Buddha as Namura and Tibetans call it as Takmo Lu Jin. The place has a huge potential to attract both Buddhist and Hindu pilgrims including international tourists from all over the world. This place offers other attractions and activities besides pilgrimage-based elements such as sightseeing of heritage town; spectacular Himalayan ranges; paddy field terrains; hilly forests; soft adventures experience; and so on. Religious tourism and pilgrimage tourism are interchangeably used in this study and the paper is based on both the primary and secondary data. Exploratory research has been carried out to examine the religious and economic benefits of pilgrims at this site. It also tried to investigate locals’ perspectives on pilgrimage tourism development. Meanwhile, this paper not only studied prospects of pilgrimage tourism in Namo Buddha but also attempted to find out and highlight how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the destination.

Role of Technology on Religious Tourism in Turkey

The religious tourism sector is a booming industry and attracts a sizable number of tourists around the world. While several factors play an important role in increasing the number of tourists for religious purposes, technology plays a vital role in managing and boasting religious tourism in a country. The authors aim to see this in the context of Turkey, a country that is a bridge between East and West, possessing a number of religious touristic sites and attracting a large number of tourists. The profile of the country and the role of technology in increasing tourism in Turkey also suggest improvements in the technological landscape of the country to increase and facilitate the religious tourists.

Construction of the Wali Pitu’s Sacredness and Islamic Veneration in Balinese Hindu Civilization

<p class="abstrak">This article explains the <em>Wali Pitu</em> (the seven saints) as a new form of veneration dynamics in Indonesia, which was built by the sacredness of Bali as the heart of Hindu culture in Indonesia. This phenomenon is unique and interesting, because the seven tombs of Muslim saints are venerated by Hindus of the region. This study uses a qualitative approach with the case-study method, extracting data as documentation from the notes of Toyyib Zaen Arifin during the expedition to search the seven graves, and interviews with members of the Manaqib al-Jamali, guidance, organizers and religious tourism congregations, as well as several caretakers of the tombs. This article describes the sacred construction of the discovery of the seven sainthoods tombs and their cults and their dynamics as a new form of the veneration of saints in Indonesia, one that differs from the other forms of veneration in Java which has been deeply rooted for a long time, such as the <em>Wali Songo</em> (the nine saints).</p><p class="abstrak" align="left"> </p><p><em>Artikel ini berupaya menjelaskan Wali Pitu (tujuh wali) sebagai bentuk baru dinamika venerasi di Indonesia yang dibangun oleh sakralitas Bali sebagai jantung peradaban Hindu. Fenomena ini sangat unik dan menarik dimana kedua korpus yang diteliti sangat kontradiktif namun menjadi sebuah realitas nyata, dimana tujuh makam wali Muslim ditemukan di Bali sebagai jantung peradaban Hindu. Menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif dengan metode studi kasus, penggalian data berupa dokumentasi dari hasil catatan Toyyib Zaen Arifin selama ekspedisi pencarian tujuh makam wali, dan wawancara kepada anggota manaqib al-Jamali, pembimbing, penyelenggara dan jama’ah wisata religi, serta beberapa juru kunci makam Wali Pitu. Artikel ini menjelaskan konstruksi sakralitas atas penemuan tujuh makam wali dan pengkultusannya serta dinamikanya sebagai wujud baru venerasi orang suci di Indonesia yang berbeda dengan venerasi sebelumnya di Jawa yang sudah mengakar kuat sejak lama (Wali Songo).</em></p>

Situasi Kebahasaan pada Lanskap Linguistik di Masjid Tiban Malang

This study investigates the phenomenon of the public linguistic landscape, which reveals the use of language in the Tiban Mosque in Malang, East Java. The goal of this research was to describe the language contestation practiced in the Tiban mosque. Furthermore, the purpose of this research is to describe the function of language in the linguistic landscape at the Tiban Malang mosque. The collected data was then classified as monolingual, bilingual, or multilingual. The qualitative descriptive method is used in this linguistic landscape study. Data is collected by observing the location, photographing the object building, and documenting it. According to the findings of this study, the linguistic landscape in the vicinity of the Tiban Malang Mosque is dominated by monolingual and bilingual speakers. This is used to make it easier for visitors and tourists to visit the Tiban mosque's religious tourism area.

Religious and museum tourism to Museum of the Holy Father John Paul II Family Home in Wadowice

The research was aimed at identifying changes in tourist traffic – religious tourism and museum tourism to the Museum of the Holy Father John Paul II Family Home in Wadowice in 1996–2019. The museum was opened in 1984 in the house where Karol Wojtyła, Pope John Paul II, was born in 1920. The thorough reconstruction between 2010 and 2014 resulted in the establishment of a museum with a modern multimedia narrative exhibition. In recent years, the museum has been visited by more than 200 thousand tourists a year, including 40 thousand foreigners from more than 100 countries worldwide. During the years 1996–2019 the number of international tourists rose more than twice. The greatest boom in the visits to the museum was noted in 2005 and was associated with the disease, death, funeral, and increasing worship of Pope John Paul II. Following decreased interest in visits to the museum during the period of 2010–2014, which was due to the museum renovation, a revival and increase in visits to the museum was observed again. Changes that were observed in the museum during the last twenty-five years were identified, among other things, thanks to field research involving observations and interviews with museum curators and staff. Analyses of tourist visits to the museum were based on detailed data provided by the museum managers. In the elaboration of the collected research results descriptive-analytical, dynamic-comparative and cartographic methods were used.

COLLABORATIVE PLANNING FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY OF THE HAJJ

Every year, millions of Muslim worshippers visit Mecca in Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj which is the fifth and final pillar of Islam. Mecca hosts more than 2,300,000 people from around 183 different countries and cultures every year. In 2016, these numbers were forecast to grow to 2,500,000 in 2020. This goal, however, has not been achieved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has forced the government to severely reduce the number of pilgrims in 2020 to just 10,000 people. Ultimately, this situation is temporary and visitor numbers should continue to rise. Tourism, especially religious tourism such as the Hajj, is expected to boost the economy and create new jobs for Saudi youth in the services sector. Yet, despite the many benefits of the pilgrimage, the Hajj itself has several severe adverse environmental impacts. The activities of Hajj generate considerable solid and liquid waste, use large quantities of scarce fresh water and produce high levels of greenhouse gasses (GHGs).