Harassment of religious visitors to Hindu temples in India
by Vandita Hajra; Kaustav Nag
International Journal of Tourism Policy (IJTP), Vol. 13, No. 2, 2023

Abstract: Earlier researchers have concluded that travel to religious sites in the contemporary world is driven by varied motivations and the stakeholders involved must carefully address the varying expectations of different types of visitors. This study highlights an important aspect of harassment of visitors to religious sites that have remained largely unexplored in empirical studies. The study consisted of analysing TripAdvisor narratives of visitors reporting harassment experiences at Hindu temples in India using a hybrid content analysis approach. The results revealed the following eleven types of harassment: extortion by priests, fraud and fleecing, rude behaviour of temple staff, poor facilities and management, touting, aggressive selling by vendors, physical abuse, verb al abuse, persistence by beggars, sexual harassment, and human-animal conflict. The findings have significant managerial and theoretical implications for destination managers and researchers alike.

Online publication date: Fri, 31-Mar-2023

The full text of this article is only available to individual subscribers or to users at subscribing institutions.

 
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.

Pay per view:
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.

Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Tourism Policy (IJTP):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:

Username:        Password:          Forgotten your password?

Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.

If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com