Religion Tourism and Entrepreneurial Development (A Case Study Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh Shrine)

Abstract

IntroductionTourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes. To become one of the rapidly growing economic sectors in the world, tourism experienced a continual evolution, and expanding modern tourism is ,Nowadays .diversification over the last few decades creasing is closely linked to the economic enlargement and includes .an industry umber of new destinations. So, modern tourism has become a key driver of socio-.economic development of a country In spite of the political chaos, wars, medical scares, natural catastrophes, bomber attacks, fiscal and energy crises in different countries of the world, international trade in tourism services has grown enormously since 1970s. Tourism has become an international economic and social force. Among different types of tourism professional tourism is meticulously associated to the productive activity (Tureac and Turtureanu, 2010).Tourism to religious places is called religious tourism. Religious tourism can be defined as: It is a special tourist activity oriented by religious culture, with the help of specific eco-cultural environment, and it refers to such special tourist activities as worship, research, sightseeing and culture carried out by religious followers and lay tourists(Raj et al., 2013).Religious tourism is a special form of tourism, which is entirely or intensely motivated for religious reasons. Religious tourism is one of the ancient type of tourism. Modern religious tourists are more capable to visit holy cities and holy sites around the world. The well-known holy cities in the world are Mecca, Madinah, Karbala, Jerusalem and Varanasi. People of different religions visit these cities for the gratification of their religious obligations.All the cities of the world hosted religious centers are not only a major part of the cultural landscape, but they also promote the economic activities in the form of local business and marketing. At International level Mecca, Jerusalem and Rome attract millions of visitors similarly some cities attract millions of people at the national level.Same like other religions, Muslims also feel attraction to visit countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Iraq especially for the visit of sacred places of these countries. Many Muslims like to travel to areas where the Islamic culture and values are respected, including halal and convenience foods in the religious practice which provide a comfortable sense of security (Iravani and Mozaffari, 2013). Muslim and Non-Muslim tourists are attracted to different Islamic areas, events, gatherings and festivals by stimulating them as spiritual tourism products (Haq and Yin Wong, 2010). First and foremost is Ibn Battutah (1304-1368) who has visited most of the Islamic world approximately over a period of thirty years. Thus, the idea of travelling and tourism is genuinely rooted in the Islamic tradition(Nursanty, 1945).Number of pilgrims who came from all over the world contribute a lot in the GDP of the visited country. Like wise famous religious sites of different countries are visited by many people from all around the world. For every country including Pakistan religious toursm is a source of generating revenue. Alongwith other benefits of enhanced tourism the entrepreneurs who are performingtheir entrepreneurial activities around different tourism sites speciallly get benefit from increased number of tourists.In 2014, Pakistan earned 283 million US$ from international tourism receipts (UNWTO, 2015). The international tourists come in Pakistan due to two main reasons one is the natural beauty of the Northern areas, and second one is the presence of sacred places of different religions. Pakistan is crucible of two of the great religions of the world, Buddhism and cradle of another, Sikhism. From all over the world, Gurdwaras of Nankana Sahib and Hasanabdal are a great magnetism for Sikhs from all over the world. …

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