Evaluating Visitor Experience At Religious Heritage Sites

Travelling to religious sites has continued to attract people throughout the development of human societies.Religious and cultural heritage sites such as cathedrals,temples,and mosques are attracting increasing number of visitors worldwide,not only for their spiritual value but also for recreational,educational,and cultural purpose.According to UNWTO estimate,every year 300 to 330 million visitors visit world's main holy sites.For the better management of visitor experiences in religious and cultural heritage sites,and to generate higher economic benefits from those sites,understanding of visitor experience is essential.Although several studies has carried out regarding visitor experiences in religious heritage sites,the literatures says very little about the influencing factors of visitor experiences,specially in Hindus and Buddhist religious heritage sites.In addition,a common approach in religious tourism literature is to explore and compare the experiences of different types of visitors at a single site.This case study attempts to explore the evaluating factors of visitor experiences,and analyze their possible links with visitors' demography and motivation,by taking two religious heritage sites associated with two different religions(Hindu and Buddhist)as case study sites,and suggests the areas to be improved for better management of the sites,enhancing visitors' experiences.This research employed both qualitative and quantitative research methods.Qualitative interviews were used to investigate visitors subjective experiences and evaluation of their visit,and questionnaire survey method to facilitate comparisons between sites or among different visitor groups.In addition,the research employed importance-performance analysis(IPA)to locate the areas and factors to be imporved while managing visitor experience in those sites.Analysis of survey data revealed five aspects taken in account by respondents while evaluating their experiences.Those aspects were labeled as religious and cultural factor,physical factor,economic factor,service and facilities related factor,and human factor.Investigation of evaluation of different factors of visitor experience revealed significant differences in evaluation by different demography.Evaluation by different gender group showed that female visitors were more positive towards religious and cultural,as well as human factors;where as male visitors were more positive towards service and facilities.Similarly,visitors from higher age rated religious and cultural,service and facilities,and human factors with higher scores,whereas lower age group rated economic aspect with higher scores.Visitors with higher educational background perceived economic factor and service and facilities more positively,and visitors with lower educational background perceived physical and human factors more positively.Similarly,there was statistically significant difference in evaluation of two factors,service and facilities,and human factor,relative to income.Analysis of evaluation of visitor experience by different motivational group revealed that visitors with religious motivation rated religious and cultural,economic,physical and human aspects with higher mean values,whereas visitors with social motivation rated service and facilities with higher mean value.Visitor's preferences for religious and cultural factor as well as environmental factor were similar to both case study sites.Similarly,Buddhist and Hindus visitors while evaluating their experience showed similar attitude,whereas evaluation of other religious groups was different.IPA suggests that visitors were satisfied with religious and cultural factor in both case study sites,whereas environmental factor,human factor,and survice and facilities were seen to be imporved.