Nostalgia as Travel Motivation - Identifying Religious Tourists Motivation in Himachal Himalaya

Abstract

The recent century has witnessed many social, cultural, environmental, globalization, technological, transport development, and commercialization changes in the society. These changes have a profound impact on the growth and nostalgia of religious tourism globally and India is no exception in this context. The Himachal Himalayan religious sites possess attributes that can meet religious tourists’ need for nostalgia. In fact, these sites are considered important at the levels of religion, heritage, and culture of tourism worldwide. Despite the popularity of voyages to religious sites and their global importance, there is still a lack of knowledge about the Nostalgia as travel motivation for Religious tourists’ visiting in Himachal Himalaya religious sites. Thus, the aims of this research is to understand the motivations of religious tourists by using Nostalgia (push and pull) framework and to examine the relationship between religious tourist motivation and overall satisfaction. In a survey of 278 religious tourists who visited in the Himachal Himalaya religious sites were sampled. Data were analysed by using structural equation modelling (SEM) via AMOS statistical software using the maximum likelihood method.The study postulates that Nostalgia pull motivation of Himachali tourists’ affects their overall satisfaction at the religious sites in Himachal Pradesh India and Nostalgia push motivation has a significant positive effect on Himachali tourists’ overall satisfaction at the religious sites in Himachal Pradesh India. Furthermore, the results of this research indicated that overall satisfaction of religious tourist can be determined by their push and pull motivations. Finally, the paper concludes with the theoretical contributions and managerial implications.

Keywords: Nostalgia, Motivation, Religious Tourism, Satisfaction

View PDF