Tourism and Hospitality Planning & Development

August 2004, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 173 186

Faith and Tourism: Planning Tourism in Relation

to Places of Worship

SIMON C. WOODWARD
PLB Consulting Ltd, Malton

ABSTRACT Tourist activity at religious sites represents an important source of income

for many faith institutions and organisations, generating funds for repairs and
maintenance. Tourism can also act as a catalyst for economic development in the wider
destination, creating jobs and supporting local businesses. However, not all religious
sites are locations able to accommodate large numbers of visitors at one time, or are
able to resolve some of the conflicts that arise from non-religious use of faith buildings.
A review of planning and management solutions used at a number of sites associated
with world religions to tackle the pressures of tourism activity reveals the importance
of an holistic approach to urban planning on the one hand, and the importance of
micro-level management responses that reflect local cultural traditions and market
realities. Case studies include a number of UK cathedral towns, the Sacred City of
Kandy, Sri Lanka and the Holy City of Makkah in Saudi Arabia.

Introduction
A recent report suggested that faith tourism based on Christianity is one of the strongest
growing sectors in international tourism today, generating at least US$1 billion per annum
(Tourism Trendspotter, 2000). For example, it was estimated in 2000 that approximately
30 million pilgrims visited Rome and 4 million visited the Holy Land. It also has to be
recognized that faith tourism is not just a feature of Christianity, but of almost every religion. Indeed, some locations are important to more than one faith. Jerusalem is sacred to
three religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam, a situation which brings with it
additional challenges in terms of visitor management.
Nor is it just Christianity that generates high levels of visitor activity. More than 2
million Hindus take part in the Kumbh Mela, while hundreds of thousands of Buddhists
travel to Kandy, Sri Lanka, every year to the Esala Perahara, when the Sacred Tooth

Correspondence Address: Dr Simon Woodward, PLB Consulting Ltd, The Mattings, Castlegate, Malton, YO17
7DP, UK.
1479-053X Print/1479-0548 Online/04/010173 14 # 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/1479053042000251089

174 S. C. Woodward
Relic of the Lord Buddha is paraded through the town. And some 2.5 million Muslims
travel to the Holy City of Makkah each year to perform Hajj one of the five pillars of
Islam. The importance of the Hajj to the Saudi Arabian economy is considerable, with
revenue from the 2003 Hajj estimated at SR 5 billion (US$1.5 billion). Some 40 per
cent of this, or SR 2 billion (US$0.6 billion), was made from renting out apartment buildings to better-off pilgrims (Arab News, 2003).
This paper considers not just the narrow sector of faith tourism but the broader role of
sacred sites within the overall tourism product. In this paper some of the issues associated
with tourism development and visitor management in historic cities are explored
especially in relation to significant religious buildings such as cathedrals, temples and
mosques. This review excludes graveyards, many of which also function both as sacred
spaces and as tourist destinations; for example, for the large numbers of young people
whose first point of call in Paris is Jim Morrisons grave located in the Pe`re Lachaise Cemetery in the east of Paris. Nor does this survey include the semi-sacred spaces found
outside churches and other religious buildings, such as the space in front of a cathedral
that might at certain times of the year be used for ceremonial purposes, but is often
used by tourists like any other plaza, with little respect to local custom or the value
accorded to that place.

Tourism Activity at Religious Sites

Although many people in the West are effectively living in a secular age, the built heritage
associated with our religious traditions retains an appeal that often transcends personal
culture or faith. But, as a result of this interest, many churches, cathedrals, mosques and
temples have effectively become yet one more element of the tourism product, effectively
a substitute for castles, museums or archaeological sites. At times it seems that for every
pilgrim travelling through northern Spain to reach Santiago de Compostela to honour
St James, there is an earnest young backpacker looking through a Frommers guidebook,
struggling to comprehend the finer points of Gothic cathedral architecture.
Research undertaken with visitors to churches in England found that most such visitors
belong to socio-economic groups ABC1 and are middle aged or older, with children who
have left the family home (Keeling, 2000). The same research identified five motivating
factors for visiting churches, and suggested that they are likely to apply to cathedrals as
well. While the spiritual motivation is important, it is by no means the only reason.
Others identified included:
. Impulse visits the majority of visits, when passing as part of a day out
. Family connections relatives may be buried there, or the churches hold special memories of christenings and weddings
. Connections with famous people, as at St Marys church in Scarborough, which has the
grave of Anne Bronte
. Personal interest in church architecture, often in stained glass or other such features.
As an indication of how important religious buildings are to a nations tourism product, it
is possible to consider the level of visitor activity at UK cathedrals. It is estimated that the
UKs 61 cathedrals attract around 19 million visits per annum excluding worshippers
(ICOMOS UK, 2001). A further 12 million visits are made to the UKs 17,000 churches
and chapels. Of the 50 most visited historic properties in the UK in 2000, 19 were cathedrals or churches and five of the top ten sites were cathedrals (see Table 1).

Faith and Tourism 175

Table 1. Top ten most frequently visited historic properties in the UK, 2000
Site

1999 visits

2000 visits

% change

Tower of London
York Minster
Canterbury Cathedral
Westminster Abbey
Windsor Castle
Chester Cathedral
St Pauls Cathedral
Roman Baths, Bath
Stonehenge
Warwick Castle

2,430,000
1,900,000
1,320,000
1,260,000
1,280,000
1,000,000
1,070,000
920,000
840,000
790,000

2,300,000
1,750,000
1,260,000
1,230,000
1,130,000
1,000,000
940,000
930,000
800,000
790,000

25%
28%
24%
22%
212%
0%
212%
1%
24%
0%

Source: Sightseeing in the UK 2000, English Tourism Council (2001).

Managing Pilgrims
Of course, visits to holy places are not new. There are reports of pilgrimage to Jerusalem in
the third century AD (Wilkinson, 1998), and by the fourth century such visits were so well
established that a hospitality structure organized by local clergy was in place. Indeed,
pilgrimage destinations for any faith tend quickly to develop the facilities needed to
accommodate the needs of travellers. The word statio, the original Latin word for
station, meant a place on a pilgrim highway that provided welfare and sanctuary
(Putter, 1998).
In Islam, the long history of the pilgrimage to Makkah, the Hajj, led, first, to an informal
situation where different families and clans from Jeddah and Makkah took responsibility
for managing different aspects of the hospitality function. Some families arranged transport and accommodation for pilgrims travelling down from the Levant, others looked after
the caravans coming up from the areas that are now Oman and Yemen, while others
secured sufficient sheep to be ritually slaughtered at Eid al-Adha, the celebration at the
end of the Hajj that commemorates the obedience of Abraham, the Prophet Ibrahim,
when he was called upon to sacrifice his son Ismail, and his triumph over the temptations
of the devil.
The medieval philosophy was that no pilgrim should need to enter a sacred site unwelcome or unannounced; hence the preferred arrangement for pilgrims to move in groups
towards their final destination, having first arrived in an assembly station. This remains
true in the case of the Hajj where the logistics of managing 1.5 to 2 million international
pilgrims and a further 0.5 million Saudis has created the need to establish a separate ministry to deal with every aspect of the event. One of the roles of the ministry is to issue
licences to private companies, many of which are in the ownership of the same families
who offered services to pilgrims hundreds of years ago and who continue to facilitate
the Hajj operation.
It is interesting too to note that the Ministry of Hajj was established many years before
the Saudi government saw a need to set up a Ministry of Tourism. It should be noted,
however, that the Saudis do not perceive people coming to perform Hajj or Umrah, the
little pilgrimage, as tourists despite the facts that pilgrims use almost every aspect of
the hospitality and transport infrastructure and that pilgrimage is classified by the
World Tourism Organisation as a form of tourism. This is partly because of the obligatory
nature of Hajj, whereas tourism is by definition a discretionary activity, but it also reflects

176 S. C. Woodward
the seriousness with which the Kingdoms rulers take their responsibility as Custodians of
the Two Holy Mosques, a duty they perform on behalf of all Muslims.
Changing Circumstances in the UK
In the past, pilgrimage to holy shrines at Canterbury, Walsingham and Durham, for
instance, were large-scale events. It is reported that St Margarets shrine in Dunfermline
Abbey attracted up to 200,000 pilgrims per year in the Middle Ages, with peak periods
seeing 20,000 people travelling to a town of only 2,000 residents (Putter, 1998).
However, pilgrimage was outlawed in 1559 after the Reformation, and as a result the organized nature of visits to holy places quickly faded into memory. It was only in the
twentieth century, with the emergence of organized tourism, that large numbers of
people once again visited the cathedrals and major churches of Britain.
By this time, the economies of historic cathedral towns had changed considerably. Many
had become market centres for the surrounding rural area, and some, such as Oxford, Durham
and St Andrews, had also become important university towns. Thus, faith-based tourism
became only one of many economic sectors to be accommodated within the urban structure.
Tourism Impacts on the Built Environment
As tourism of all kinds has grown, so has the pressure that it brings to bear on historic
towns. Orbasli (2000a) identifies the following key problems associated with tourism
pressures in historic towns:
.
.
.
.

Overcrowding
Traffic and parking
Insufficient services and infrastructure
Changes to ownership patterns and the loss of the traditional, mixed economy.

A basic categorization of the impact of visitors at cultural heritage sites, used by the International Ecotourism Society in its Destination Planning workshops, is as follows:
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Accidental damage, erosion

Noise pollution
Changes in interior micro-climates
Pollution (fouling)
Crowding
Theft of artefacts/building fabric
Littering
Vandalism and graffiti.

So what problems are faced by the religious buildings that form such an important part of
the tourism experience in the UKs historic towns?
Problems Associated with Tourism at Cathedrals and Churches in the UK
In 2000, ICOMOS UK undertook a major investigation looking at how cathedrals and
churches meet the needs of their visitors (ICOMOS UK, 2001), the project updating work
undertaken almost 25 years previously by the English Tourist Board. Almost 100 cathedrals
and churches took part and the principal problems reported are shown in Table 2.

Faith and Tourism 177

Table 2. Problems reported by cathedrals and churches
accommodating tourists

Issue

2000 ICOMOS
UK study

1977 ETB
survey

54%
27%
20%
10%
10%
9%
9%

46%
33%
33%

Inadequate car and coach parking

Wear and tear on fabric
Occasional congestion, overcrowding
Theft
Vandalism
Noise
Disturbance to services
Note: To Be A Pilgrim, ICOMOS UK (2001).

It is unsurprising, perhaps, in a car-orientated society, that vehicle parking is the number

one problem facing cathedrals and churches seeking to welcome tourists and that it is even
more significant now than it was some 25 or so years ago. This problem of inadequate
vehicle parking was found to be an even greater issue at those churches and cathedrals accommodating over 200,000 visitors per annum. This is a problem not just for religious buildings
but for the wider tourism sector in historic towns, and one that urban authorities are only now
beginning to address. The problem in historic towns is that the urban fabric is often physically
unable to accommodate more parking spaces, and, when public spaces such as town squares
are given over to parking, as is often the first response, there is a negative impact on the
quality of the tourism experience (Orbasli, 2000a). How then should this problem be
addressed, particularly when there exists a real tension between the tourism sector and
broader urban conservation interests? As Orbasli (2000b) comments, the unprecedented
growth of cultural tourism and the ever increasing need for this economic input in towns
and cities is clearly influencing the approach to history and heritage in the urban environment.
The commercialisation of heritage is in conflict with the essence of urban conservation.
Charging for Vehicle Access
One of the most radical solutions, and politically the most sensitive, is the introduction of
tolls for drivers entering city centres in an attempt to secure modal shifts in transportation,
and, in particular, to encourage people out of their cars and onto public transport. Should
this fail to secure the modal shift desired, at least it raises income that can be used to subsidize public transport services for others, or indeed other areas of municipal expenditure,
such as conservation of heritage buildings.
Although the introduction of the congestion charge in central London has received considerable media coverage over the last year, the historic city of Durham in the north of
England was, for several months before London, charging vehicles 2.00 (US$3.20) for
admission into the city centre, which contains not only the usual commercial facilities
but also one of the UKs most visually outstanding World Heritage Sites.
Durham Cathedral and Castle are located on a small peninsula at the southern end of the
city centre, and were given World Heritage Site status in 1986. The cathedral represents
perhaps the best example of Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture in Northern Europe,
and, in heritage tourism terms, is one of the icons of the north of England. It attracts around
500,000 visitors every year, while the nearby castle is one of the colleges of Durham
University, although it too is able to accommodate around 140,000 visitors per annum

178 S. C. Woodward
on special guided tours. Most of the other buildings on the peninsula are owned and used
either by the university or the Dean and Chapter. Thus, the historic core of the city is both a
tourist destination and a place to live and work.
Most tourists come to Durham by car or coach, and the medieval road network leading
up to Palace Green, which lies between the cathedral and castle, was becoming overcrowded and dangerous. Before 2002, when the charge was introduced, some 2,000
vehicles a day were coming into the charging zone between 10 am and 4 pm. This has
been cut to around 200 vehicles a massive 90 per cent reduction in vehicle movements
(Hetherington, 2003). Supporting the charging scheme has been the introduction of a small
bus between Palace Green and the main car parks around the city, the bus and rail stations.
To date, the effect on attendances at the cathedral has not been particularly noticeable
but there needs to be more extensive monitoring before the situation can be assessed with
greater accuracy. Some local traders report lower sales since the scheme was introduced
but, again, this may reflect the current slow down in the UK economy or short-term
changes happening as a consequence of the introduction of new schemes.
At Westminster Abbey in Central London, another World Heritage Site, where congestion charges have been levied since February 2003, there is less concern about the likely
effect it will have on visitor numbers since the majority of Abbey visitors arrive either by
coach or on public transport. Oxford Cathedral, however, reports that the introduction of
access restrictions and parking limits in the city centre in summer 1999 led to a significant
fall in visitor numbers (ICOMOS UK, 2001).
Charging a flat fee for vehicles entering a particular zone or part of a city, as in Durham
and London, is referred to as a regressive tax (Crawford, 2000) in that the tax level is independent of the ability to pay and the rate paid falls proportionately as income increases. For
instance, a US$2 toll on a weekly income of $100 per week is 2 per cent, while $2 for
someone earning $200 per week is only 1 per cent of their income. It is thus likely to
favour better-off tourists who, as market research suggests, represent the core market for
all types of cultural heritage tourism. Thus, charging for car access into historic city
centres may have the twin benefits, from a tourism point of view, of reducing the overall
intrusion of vehicles into an area while not unduly discriminating against the core market.
Whether or not it is politically correct to be this exclusive is, of course, open to question.
Coach Access
Coach access is another aspect of vehicle management that is crucial to the welcome that
UK cathedrals give visitors. Yet again, many of the UKs historic towns are unable to cater
adequately for the needs of coach operators and strict parking and setting down/pick up
policies are imposed, much to the chagrin of tour operators whose itineraries are strictly
timed and for whom walking time is preferably kept to a minimum.
At Lincoln Cathedral, in eastern England, the Dean and Chapter are negotiating with the
Highways Department of the County Council over how additional coach drop-off points and
parking can be provided so that the cathedral can benefit from the citys emerging status as a
tourism destination. Finance is an essential part of the cathedrals argument here. The annual
maintenance budget for the cathedral alone exceeds 1 million (US$1.6 million) and admission charges account for some 50 per cent of all revenue raised from visitors. The more
people that visit the cathedral, the higher the income and the easier it is to maintain the
fabric of the building without drawing on the Churchs financial reserves.
Unfortunately, in Lincoln, the situation is complicated by the urban morphology. Socalled uphill Lincoln comprises a network of medieval streets, steep hills and narrow
arches, including the only Roman arch still used by traffic in the UK today, 1,700 years

Faith and Tourism 179

after it was built. As in Durham City, a hopper bus has been introduced to link the cathedral and nearby castle with the main shopping area and rail station. It is anticipated that
this service will be extended to take in a new coach park and park and ride points in
the future, although public support to date has been extremely limited.

Congestion and Crowding

Crowding is another problem faced inside and around religious buildings, particularly
during festivals, ceremonies and other events. The ICOMOS UK (2001) survey found
that the buildings with the largest numbers of visitors are not necessarily the most
congested. The size and structure of the building are also important considerations. The
causes of congestion at UK churches and cathedrals include:
.
.
.
.

Several coach parties arriving simultaneously

Wet days in July and August (i.e. the main tourist season)
Major events inside (flower festivals, concert rehearsals)
Major events outside (e.g. Lincolns Christmas Market).

Charging for Access to Religious Buildings

One of the most dramatic solutions to the problem of crowding is to charge for admission.
As with the vehicle congestion charge already operating in two of the UKs historic city
centres, this is in effect a regressive tax, although experience suggests that, when applied
in cathedrals and churches, it has the desired effect. Westminster Abbey, part of the Westminster WHS in central London that also includes the Palace of Westminster, home to
the UK parliament, and the historic Jewel Tower, has charged for access to some parts
of the Abbey for nearly 100 years. For much of the last century, visitors paid only to
see the Royal Chapels but by 1995 the Abbeys visitor numbers were reaching 2.5
million visitors per annum and many worshippers were increasingly upset by the tendency
for people to talk loudly and mill about. In effect, the Abbey had become a convenient
meeting room or meeting point and its role as a place of worship forgotten or ignored.
To address these problems the Dean and Chapter at Westminster introduced an initiative Recovering the Calm that included:
.
.
.
.
.

Raising the admission charge by 20 per cent

Applying it to the whole of the Abbey, rather than just the Royal Tombs
Re-orienting visitor flow around the building and creating a single route
Providing rest points part way round the route
Designating a formal gathering point for coach parties in Deans Yard, outside the
Abbey building but still within the precinct
. Providing an additional exit part way round for time-pressed coach parties
. Allowing those who wish to pray privately to enter the quiet nave free of charge through
the Pilgrim Door.
Overall visitor numbers declined by 60 per cent from 2.5 million to around 1 million per
annum, but overall income from visitors actually increased, since only a relatively small
proportion of visitors previously paid to see the Royal Tombs. The official press release
from the Abbey, commenting on the success of Recovering the Calm, reported that:
It must be very rare to find a solution to a loss of spirituality in the application of economics
and management. Yet it has happened and it has been a resounding success. Worshippers

180 S. C. Woodward
Table 3. Relative contribution of different income streams, charging sites only
% of gross revenue
Site
Canterbury Cathedral
Glastonbury Abbey
Lincoln Cathedral
St Pauls, London
Oxford Cathedral
Westminster Abbey
St Patricks, Armagh
St Mary the Virgin,
Oxford
St Marys, Rye
Average, all sites

Visitors
(2000)

Donations

Admissions

Catering

Retail

Events

Other

1,350,000
120,000
200,000
1,075,000
175,000
1,270,000
10,000
300,000

1
6
15
1
5
3
10
5

53
77
50
65
90
61
10
60

10
2

6
10
10

40
11
15
30
5
27
30
25

2
40

5
5
10

170,000
n/a

19
7

45
57

28
23

2
9

6
5

Source: To Be A Pilgrim, ICOMOS UK (2001).

are returning to the Abbey in steadily increasing numbers and the tourists have shown that
they much prefer the new arrangements.
(Westminster Abbey, 1996)

It must be said that Westminster Abbey is one of the few UK cathedrals and churches to
levy an admission fee most ask only for donations towards the upkeep of the building.
As an indication of the importance (or otherwise) of admission fees to the finances of some
of our major places of worship, the ICOMOS UK (2001) survey found that, for the nine
buildings in the sample that did levy such a charge, the contribution of admission fees
to overall gross visitor income averaged 57 per cent, ranging from 10 per cent (St Patricks
Cathedral, Armagh) to 90 per cent (Oxford Cathedral).
Thus, in management terms, there appear to be two main advantages of charging for
entry to a cathedral or church:
. It reduces demand, thus retaining or restoring a sense of serenity and place
. Unlike catering or retailing, there is little extra on-cost once the cashiers expenses
are covered and therefore the net contribution to church funds is much greater per
spent compared to those other visitor services that include a significant cost of sale
element.
There is, of course, an ethical issue concerning whether it is appropriate to charge for
access to a house of God and this is something that each Chapter or congregation must
address for itself. Certainly in the case of Westminster Abbey, there was a well-established
tradition of charging within the Abbey and thus the Dean and Chapter did not have to go
through the same ethical debate that, say, Lincoln underwent when it introduced charging
a few years ago. The tenor of the argument presented is not necessarily in favour of charging admission fees at all religious buildings, but pointing out the advantages that can
accrue in visitor planning and management.

Visitor Management and Hospitality Services

Previously, the long tradition of hospitality that encompasses those serving pilgrims in all
the worlds religions was discussed. Despite the abolition of pilgrimage to Christian sites

Faith and Tourism 181

Table 4. Approaches to visitors in UK churches and cathedrals
Guided tours
Recommended routes
Guide books
Foreign language guidebooks or leaflets
Displays or exhibitions
Welcomers/stewards
Education programmes
Childrens programmes

47%
36%
31%
30%
26%
24%
16%
15%

in the UK in the sixteenth century, this tradition remains and is now formalized in many of
our cathedrals and churches as a visitor services function. Almost 75 per cent of the
ICOMOS UK (2001) sample has an administrative structure in place for the management
of visitors, with 90 per cent of cathedrals having such a function.
St Pauls Cathedral in London, for example, has a commercial director, some 30 paid
stewards and several hundred volunteers who provide guiding and related services.
Peterborough Cathedral relied for many years on around 20 volunteer welcomers, but
in 1998 decided to augment the volunteers with a team of eight paid welcomers, with
one immediate result being an increase in donations revenue.
Such provision in religious buildings appears to develop in an ad hoc fashion, to
implement management arrangements that address the specific issues faced by each facility and its managers. However, there are a number of common approaches that can be
found across the UKs churches and cathedrals (see Table 4).
One place where the provision of guided tours becomes of considerable benefit is at a
sacred site connected with an unfamiliar religion. In such instances, the benefits include
not only a better understanding of the building and of the religion itself, but also guidance
on appropriate behaviour, something that is important if the visitor is not to cause even
inadvertent offence.

Sacred City of Kandy, Sri Lanka

At the Temple of the Tooth Relic in the Sacred City of Kandy, Sri Lanka, locally engaged
temple guides perform this function for the increasing number of international tourists
visiting the temple and surrounding area. Kandy became the capital of Sri Lanka in the
fifteenth century and performed this role until the Kingdom fell to the British in 1815.
The Sri Dalada Maligawa, the temple that houses the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Lord
Buddha, is probably the most sacred Buddhist shrine in the world and the city remains
the religious capital of the country. The sacred city of Kandy was inscribed on the
World Heritage list in 1988.
Kandy features on 90 per cent of tour itineraries covering Sri Lanka. At present, the city
attracts around 140,000 international tourists per annum and a further 17.5 million domestic visits, a ratio of 250 : 1 Sinhalese to one foreigner (Kandy Municipal Council, 2000).
However, the international tourist stays longer (two nights on average compared to one
night for domestic visitors) and has a much higher spend per head (US$50 compared to
US$1 for domestic visitors). Thus, in terms of economic impact, local Sinhalese contribute
only 2.5 times the level of local income that international tourists do. With the ceasefire in
the civil war in Sri Lanka, the government is keen to develop international tourism across

182 S. C. Woodward
the island, building on Sri Lankas outstanding cultural and natural heritage. Kandy will
undoubtedly play a prime role in these efforts, along with the other World Heritage
Sites in Sri Lankas Cultural Triangle.
At peak periods during Poya and other ceremonial occasions, the town can attract up to
a million people, bringing the usual problems of congestion and the straining of the local
infrastructure. Even outside these periods, the small town centre becomes extremely congested and a survey of local people found that 50 per cent felt this was a problem that
needed to be resolved. The municipality does attempt to derive some income from carand coach-borne tourists, levying a daily parking charge of 10 rupees (US$0.13) for
cars and 25 rupees (US$0.65) for coaches, thereby raising some US$350,000 per
annum for heritage conservation in the town.
Given the very low income levels of most Sinhalese, and the sacred nature of the site
for Buddhists, increasing car parking charges to levels that might begin to diminish congestion and, at the same time, raise additional funds for conservation or visitor management is not really an option. It is also important to note that the governments desire to
increase tourism in Kandy is not universally appreciated. A community survey in 1999
found only 50 per cent of local residents in favour of foreign tourists (i.e. non-Buddhists)
visiting the Temple, 40 per cent were concerned at the inappropriate clothing worn by
international tourists and indeed 13 per cent wanted no tourists at all (Kandy Municipal
Council, 2000).
These concerns support an earlier review of the effects of cultural tourism on people
living within the Cultural Triangle, which expressed concern at the intrusion that
tourism will bring to devout Buddhists:
in the eyes of the cultural tourist, the local user partaking in the ritual becomes an actor performing in a theatre set. In this case the set is the vernacular architecture of the Temple of the
Tooth. For the local user, the ritual is an important part of his upliftment process. For the cultural tourist it is a complete drama . . .. The conflict for the user arises as a result. The upliftment, whether spiritual, psychological or religious, is affected and becomes only partial.
(Amarasekera and Navarante, 1993)

In other words, the presence of tourists diminishes the ritual. Local guides can help tourists
avoid unnecessary conflict with worshippers although they cannot resolve the other main
access management issue at the temple, i.e. the need to prevent a recurrence of the suicide
bomb attack in January 1998, which killed eight people, injured 25, and left the entrance
area and temple roof damaged, although the inner chambers and the relic itself were
unharmed. Hopefully, with the recently signed peace accord between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, known as the Tamil Tigers, such events will not happen again.
Makkah
Like the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, the Kabah Mosque (also called the Holy Mosque)
in Makkah attracts hundreds of thousands of devotees at one time. However, Muslims
regard Makkah as an especially holy place, and no non-Muslim is allowed to approach
or enter the city. The Arabic phrase used to describe this is haram, which can mean
both sacred and forbidden. Checkpoints are positioned around the city to check travellers
papers, to ensure that no curious tourist enters Makkah. Nonetheless, with more than one
billion Muslims in the world, there is more than enough latent demand for access to
Makkah during Hajj.
The logistics for visitor management associated with the Hajj pilgrimage are considerable. The Kabah mosque itself is large enough to accommodate 75,000 people at one time
and a tented village to accommodate more than a million pilgrims is built in a narrow

Faith and Tourism 183

Table 5. Number of international pilgrims performing Hajj

Year

Number of
pilgrims

% change on
previous year

1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003

1.1 million
1.3 million
1.4 million
1.4 million
1.5 million
1.5 million

18%
8%
0%
7%
0%

valley some 2 km wide just outside the town. The number of Muslims travelling from
overseas to perform Hajj has grown by some 40 per cent in recent years, although the
volume of domestic Hajj participants has recently been declining, from 800,000 in 1995
to around 500,000 in 2003. Overseas demand for Hajj is predicted to grow at around 4
per cent per annum for at least the next five years, while domestic demand is anticipated
to increase again as a result of the changing shift in the age structure of the Saudi population (see Table 5).
In order to meet the obligations of an expanding Muslim population worldwide, there is
pressure on the Saudi government to provide additional capacity to maintain the existing
allocation of one Hajj place per 1,000 resident Muslim population, at least in the short
term. However, there is a physical limit to the number that can perform Hajj at any one
time because of the bottlenecks in Tawaff, Arafat and Mina, where massive numbers of
pilgrims are required to perform certain rituals in a relatively constrained geographical
space and over a short period of time. In the area around the Holy Mosque, hotel and apartment developments place further physical constraints on capacity. Thus in the longer term
the ratio of 1 : 1,000 may not be sustainable and there may have to be a change in the allocation of Hajj places.
As indicated previously, the geography of the area around Makkah and the Holy
Mosque inevitably leads to problems of congestion in some locations. One of the physical
planning responses to this has been the creation of vast underground tunnels to allow pilgrims to walk the 10 km from Makkah to Mount Arafat (Mina) and to walk between the
two small hills of Safa and Marwah. Yet this provision also brings other problems because
of the vast numbers of people involved. For example, in 1990 some 1,400 pilgrims were
killed in a stampede in the pedestrian tunnel that links Makkah and Mina when the ventilation system broke down and people panicked.
There have been other tragedies too, all associated with the enormous number of people
moving around in one location (see Table 6).

Table 6. Tragedies at Makkah

1994
1997
1998
2001
2003

270 crushed to death

350 killed in a fire in the
camp site in Mina
180 crushed to death
35 crushed to death
14 crushed to death

184 S. C. Woodward
The fundamental role of Hajj in Islam means that the tangible built heritage of Makkah
has always come second to the improvement of the infrastructure needed to accommodate
visitors. The traditional hierarchy associated with the Holy Mosque and the surrounding
Haram has been severed in the interests of visitor management. In the original urban
layout, common to most Islamic towns (Orbasli, 2000a), the Mosque was at the centre
and the surrounding areas contained the important neighbourhoods that serviced the
Holy Mosque and the pilgrim community.
However, the sacred site in Makkah, including the Holy Mosque, now sits as an island
surrounded by vast road networks that are able to move pilgrims to and from the sites efficiently and a wall of luxury hotels providing for the top end of the market. This reinforces
the point made earlier about income from letting apartments being the main revenue
potential from the pilgrimage. The same situation is true in Madinah, where the Prophet
Mohammed (PBUH) is buried, and where the traditional Aghawat district, with many historic connections to the mosque and the pilgrimage, has been razed to the ground within
the last few years (Bianca, 2000).
As a result of this investment in infrastructure and accommodation for better-off pilgrims, the vernacular architecture of the region is all but invisible in Makkah, although
it can still be seen nearby in Taif. In 2002, the Saudi government was heavily criticized
for demolishing the Ottoman Fort that overlooked the Holy Mosque, almost the last
remaining nineteenth-century building in the town, in order to free up more space for
commercial development and infrastructure. Indeed, as indicated above, little remains
in Madinah of the original townscape, as, again, large apartment blocks have been built
to house pilgrims visiting the Prophet Mosque and other sites associated with early
Islamic tradition.
In the case of Makkah and Madinah, therefore, it is the intangible heritage asset that is
most important, rather than the architecture that is the physical manifestation of that
culture. Thus it is hard for an outsider to criticize the Saudis for their clean sweep
approach to urban development in Makkah and Madinah, for they recognize that it is
not what is seen at a religious building that is important, so much as what people do
and feel.
One interesting, if indirect, effect of the major investment in hotels and apartments to
cater for pilgrims has been the recent move by the Saudi government to establish a
Supreme Commission for Tourism (SCT). At present the apartments in Makkah and
Madinah operate at 100 per cent occupancy for a three- or four-week period around
Hajj and also during Ramadan, then fall to around 20 per cent for the rest of the year,
with an average annual occupancy of around 60 per cent. Apartment and hotel owners
have been putting pressure on the government to review visa and travel restrictions, to
allow international visitors to spend longer in the Kingdom and to be able to travel
freely so that they can visit more sites associated with the Prophet (PBUH).
The SCT has thus been charged with developing the Kingdoms tourism sector in an
attempt to secure better utilization of the Kingdoms hospitality infrastructure, and has
identified other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) residents and Muslims coming to
Saudi to perform Hajj or Umrah as a key market segment to be targeted. One byproduct of this will inevitably be increased activity at other sacred sites associated with
Islam, sites which to date do not have the infrastructure necessary to welcome and accommodate visitors. Such investment is currently being planned at several sites around the
Kingdom, including a mosque associated with the Prophet (PBUH) in Al Ula, and the battlefield of Al Badr, site of the first battle of the Muslims against non-believers from
Makkah.

Faith and Tourism 185

St Andrews
A final case study demonstrates the importance of adopting a holistic approach to urban
planning and visitor management in historic cities with sacred sites, namely St Andrews
in eastern Scotland. Better known to many as the home of golf, St Andrews was in fact
planned to accommodate large numbers of visitors to its religious buildings.
Relics of St Andrew were brought first to England by St Augustine in 597 AD , then
moved to Hexham in Northumberland in around 650 AD and finally to what is now
St Andrews in 732 AD . At that time, the town was known as Righmonaidth The mount
where kings are crowned and was the heart of the pagan kingdom of the Scots. The
relics were given to the Christian Scots as a reward for embracing the faith in the face
of adversity, and the cult of St Andrew began.
In 1140 the Pope designated St Andrews as a suitable destination for pilgrimage and
the then-bishop, Rodger, issued instructions for the building of a new cathedral church
to replace a smaller building already in existence. According to his instructions,
St Andrews was to be a pilgrim city laid out with processional streets of boulevard proportions, each capable of accommodating large processions of the faithful on pilgrimage.
There were also to be gardens for people to rest in. In effect, it was an early holistic
approach to town planning for faith tourism, and was the largest building project in
northern Europe of its time. Interestingly, the planned pattern of the main streets in St
Andrews has remained unaltered since 1140, although, in the absence of the guides
who in earlier times would have escorted pilgrims around the town, modern-day visitors
are now dependent on the ubiquitous finger posts, orientation panels and guide books to
find their way around.
Conclusion
The issues associated with visitors attending religious sites, places of faith tourism and pilgrimages have perhaps been underestimated by practitioners at many destinations in recent
decades. The case material presented in this paper suggests that there remains a tension
between the need to accommodate the wishes of those who seek to use the particular
sites as places of worship and those who visit not as pilgrims but as sightseers. Therefore,
there is a need to re-address the way in which such sites are developed and subsequently
managed. There are a number of planning issues associated with tourism at sacred sites.
The following observations summarize the findings of this preliminary work:
1. there is no substitute for holistic urban planning, although there is very little opportunity for this type of approach with regard to most locations
2. micro-level management responses must be tailored to local circumstances, reflecting
both cultural traditions and market realities
3. there is a real need for action plans to be drawn up and goals for the site or event in
question in order to ensure that all stakeholders are conversant with the planning as
pirations.
There is much to be learnt from the case material that has already been gathered, so the
first stage will be to draw upon this in order to develop a more thorough research study
in due course.
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