K3) Religious Tourism in A Key Textual Perspective: Spiritual Authenticity and Cultural Heritage

Over the last few decades religious tourism has emerged as a growing, relevant sector in international tourism industry. It is estimated that approximately 300 million visitors per year go on pilgrimages and the global number continually increases (Syngh & Bhuyan, 2024). The purpose of the present study is twofold: first, as major pilgrimage destinations strategically employ tourism discourse (Dann, 1996; Maci, 2020), this paper critically examines English tourism discourse as used on the official website Jubilee 2025. Second, it investigates how religious tourism itineraries, promoted on the website, are discursively framed to engage international visitors (Wodak & Meyer, 2015). Indeed, there is a noticeable trend of religious tourism becoming increasingly intertwined with ˜cultural tourism’ (Singh & Bhuyan, 2024). More specifically, the analysis focuses on key textual features that contribute to the persuasive nature of the website’s content, including lexical choices in the narrative structure, and discursive strategies. Special attention is given to the way the website balances religious authenticity with cultural heritage. By critically examining the promotional language used to frame the pilgrimage experience, this study sheds light on the ideological underpinning of religious tourism discourse and its implications for visitors’ perceptions. Findings from this research contribute to the broader field of tourism discourse studies by demonstrating how religious tourism websites function as powerful communicative tools, both in an informative and in a persuasive perspective. Additionally, the study highlights how sacred and secular tourism narratives converge within institutional tourism promotion, thus also influencing the representation of religious destinations in digital spaces. Ultimately, this research offers insights into the persuasive mechanisms at play in contemporary religious tourism marketing and the role of discourse in shaping the Jubilee 2025 experience for global audiences.