The Potential for Northern Ireland to Promote Politico-Religious Tourism: An Industry Perspective

Abstract

Recent years have seen cultural heritage tourism mature as a distinct body of academic inquiry. Culture, however, is a broad concept. As a consequence, cultural heritage tourism can be segmented into more specific subcategories. Among these are religious and political tourism. A review of the literature on political tourism and religious tourism reveals that tourists who have interest in things political and religious share similar motivations and often make use of similar attractions. However, the interrelation between religious and political tourism is an issue that has barely been addressed within academia. Possible connection here, it is argued by the authors, to be particularly evident in Northern Ireland. This study presents the views of public and private tourism sector organizations across Northern Ireland on the potential to link political and religious tourism as a definable niche product, what the authors have labeled as politico-religious tourism and investigates their willingness to collaborate to develop this new niche product.