Exploring the sacred-unravelling the growth and development of religious tourism in Islamic culture: a bibliometric analysis

Religious tourism is one of the oldest forms of tourism which has a socio-cultural and economic impact on a country. In the past few years, there has been a growth in literature on religious tourism in Islamic culture. This literature depicts different viewpoints, customs, beliefs and practices. However, the researchers have identified a strong need to put together a study that dwells deeply into the existing work and provides a framework to gauge how literature has progressed over the years. This would help identify the missing links in practices that need to be addressed that would help enhance the experiences of pilgrims in religious tourism. The researchers have used bibliometric analysis to address the research questions raised in the study. The research design included data collection, citation and co-citation analysis. The findings of the study show that religious tourism in Islamic culture has received the attention of researchers from 2006 onwards. Four clusters of emerging themes of research were identified based on co-citation analysis. The current study has put together a model that focuses on the work done so far in the domain of religious tourism in Islamic culture. The model has identified missing links that need attention to enhance the experience of travelers and create a sustainable model. This has implications for the government and local authorities to develop infrastructure, transport and accommodation that would be able to attract more tourists.