Religious Tourism Impact on Travel Industry: A Research Proposal

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Research Proposal 1
Research Proposal

Research Proposal 2
Table of Contents
Background......................................................................................................................................3
Research question and objectives....................................................................................................3
Literature review..............................................................................................................................3
Resources.........................................................................................................................................6
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................6
Time scale........................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

Research Proposal 3
Background
The research aims to identify the religious impact on travel and tourism industry. Religious
tourism is considered as the fastest growing tourism at both domestic and global level. For
achieving the aim of the research proposal, this proposal gives briefing about the relationship
between religion and tourism and also evaluates the impact of religious factors on travel and
tourism. The research proposal also includes the work break down structure and Gantt chart.
With the help of these tools, the whole research will be divided into multiple activities which are
assigned with time frame. The whole research proposal will be dependent upon the research
objectives.
Research question and objectives
Research questions and objectives narrow down the scope of the research. This research will be
based on the research questions and the findings of the research proposal also focus on whether
the objectives set out will be successfully achieved or not.
 Identifying the relationship between religion and travel and tourism industry
 Evaluating the impact of religious factor on travel and tourism industry
 Impact of online tourism sites on religious tourism
Literature review
Relationship between religion and tourism: The tourism industry is increasing its business by
taking the religious advantage. With the passage of time, people are becoming keen to visit the
religious places. The people visiting religious places are more interested in travelling with a
group of people. The religion affects the choice of the tourists. Currently, the tourism sector is
focusing more on the destinations rather than religious because the young generation is the target

Research Proposal 4
customers of the travel industry of United Kingdom. They have almost neglected the aged people
who want to travel religious destinations. The young generation is busy in social networking,
their job, education etc. and they have many more things in which they are engaged in their daily
lives (Klein and Kantor, 2018). The young generation does not have much interest in visiting
religious places as they are available with many other destinations for their entertainment
purpose. The aged people do not have many things to do so they have enough time to spend on
religious destinations. In this way, the religious destination is directly linked with the travel and
tourism industry. When the aged people of the society are targeted by tourism industry then,
there will be a direct relationship between the religious factors and tourism as the industry is
focusing on those tourists who actually need religious tourism. If the youth is targeted for
religious tourism then, there will be an indirect relationship between the religion and tourism
because the target customers do not have any interest in religious tourism (Sofield, 2018). The
relationship between religion and tourism depends upon the target customers of the tourism
industry.
Impact of religion on travel and tourism industry: Religion has impacted the travel and
tourism industry in a positive way. People above 55 are more interested towards visiting
religious places and more than half of the revenue of tourism industry comes from the people of
this age group. The aged people travel in group which increases the revenue of the tourism
industry. People of this age group take a full package including accommodation as they do not
have the capacity to search for accommodation after visiting the place (Huang and Liu, 2018).
The religious tourism has also increased due to the increase in mental instability among the aged
people. People of different cultures are living in United Kingdom who travels to different
religious places which is increasing the revenue of tourism sector in the country. People visit

Research Proposal 5
religious places more often as compared to other places. The impact of religion on travel and
tourism industry depends upon the tourism organizations. If the tourism sector arranges the
religious destination tour for young generation then, it will have negative impact on the tourism
industry because the youth want adventurous trips and not religious trips. The tourism industry
gets benefited from religious factor when it arranges the trips to religious places for aged people
who got attracted towards spirituality. The tourists are more likely to visit the religious
destinations when some religious event is going to happen during the visit. The tourism sector is
growing due to the increased craze of the people towards travelling. It totally depends upon the
religious tourism arrangement made by the tourism industry. The people of UK are getting
interested in spirituality. So, it is an opportunity for tourism industry to arrange religious trips for
such people. The people of UK who are interested in religious trips are mostly visiting Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Egypt, Nepal, Peru, Iran, Jordan and Turkey (NajafiNasab, et. al., 2018). So,
the tourism industry of UK can earn profit by arranging foreign trips in these seven countries.
Fellowship tours are a way of making the religious tourism effective. In fellowship tours, a
religious trip is arranged for those people who are having interest in visiting religious places. The
developing countries do not have many resources to tackle with natural disasters and people have
started choosing the developed countries for safe. The religious trips are less as compared to the
trips arranged to other destinations.
Impact of online tourism sites on religious tourism: Most of the people of UK are planning
their trips with the help of online websites. The most visiting online tourism sites are Zoover and
Trip advisor. People are using the internet for researching about the religious places and they are
planning to visit these places through online travel and tourism websites. The geopolitical
instability has also affected the choice of tourists. With the help of tourism sites, the tourists can

Research Proposal 6
get information about the upcoming events in the religious places. The online tourism sites are
also helpful in arranging the accommodation along with the trip (Nazki, 2018). Religious tourism
is basically for aged people so they want to book accommodation prior to booking the trip with
an objective that they cannot face any accommodation related problem. It can be much easier for
planning religious trips through tourism websites as the tourists get information about the
different religious trips arranged by the tourism companies and the tourists can select the trips
depending upon their interest.
Resources
The resources include the cost and the human resources required for completing the research
report. This research will be related to the religious impact on whole travel and tourism industry.
This research requires funds to be invested on transportation for identifying the religious impact
on various tourism companies operating in different locations. This research will be based on the
whole tourism industry so more human resources will be required which collectively carries out
the research for its successful completion. The research proposal do not involve much cost as it
will be based more on the secondary information which means the information already collected
by someone else is utilized for conducting this research proposal (He, et. al., 2019). It involves
cost incurred on visiting various tourism organizations for conducting the interview with them.
Research methodology
The research will be based on two different methods i.e. quantitative and qualitative methods of
conducting the research. This research will be based on qualitative method of collecting data as
the objectives of the research need subjective knowledge regarding religious tourism and its
impact on tourism sector. This research cannot be based upon statistical data as it needs the
subjective knowledge regarding the interest of the people towards religious tourism. Research

Research Proposal 7
methodology provides information regarding the various data collection methods used in the
research. The research will be based on qualitative methods of data collection. Both primary and
secondary methods of data collection will be used in conducting this research (McCusker and
Gunaydin, 2015). Both the methods will be used for maintaining the reliability of the information
given in the research. The sources of secondary data collected include journals and research
articles. Under the primary source of data collection, a questionnaire will be prepared for
conducting the interview from the organizations involved in tourism business. This should be
helpful in getting the accurate information from the tourism companies operating in travel and
tourism sector. This survey will be useful in getting information regarding the religious impact
on the revenue margin of the organizational involved in the tourism business. The research ethics
approval form will be necessary for maintaining the confidentiality of the research report. The
research should be based on ethical grounds and the information given in the research should be
reliable and should not be based on any unethical practices. The research ethics approval form
will also be attached in this section to make sure that the research will be based on ethical
grounds and the data included in this proposal is accurate and can be reliable (Cuervo‐Cazurra,
et. al., 2017). For the purpose of data sample, 200 different tourism organizations selected which
will be arranging religious trips. Most of the tourism organizations will be engaged in arranging
tours other than religious places. The tourism organization of United Kingdom which will be
dealing in religious tourism will be selected for carrying out the interview through the
questionnaire.
Data analysis: For maintaining the reliability of data, more focus will be given to primary
methods of data collection. With the help of primary methods of data collection, the actual data
can be collected from the tourism companies and whether the trips to religious places are

Research Proposal 8
beneficial for the company or not. SPSS software is utilized for the purpose of maintaining the
data accuracy. This software can be advantageous for identifying the efficiency of the research.
The learning of the research will be dependent upon the accuracy of the data and the data
included in it will be utilized by the tourism companies to increase their revenue with the help of
religious tourism (Gabriel, 2015).
Research Approach: Inductive research approach will be adopted as the research will be based
on research questions which will narrow down the scope of the research.
Research Ethics Approval Form
Student/Staff name
Programme/module
Title of the proposed
research project
Number and type of
participants
How is permission being
sought from the
participants?
How is participants’
anonymity to be
preserved?
Describe the research
methods
The research conducting in this research proposal will be based upon
secondary sources of data collection. This research proposal includes
the literature review which provides the information collected from

Research Proposal 9
the viewpoint of different authors on the religious impact on travel
and tourism industry. The research will also include questionnaire to
be filled by the tourism organizations.
List the ethical issues and
potential risks associated
with the research
methods
outlined above
The potential risk associated with secondary method of data
collection can be the information collected as such information
cannot be completely accurate because every author has a different
viewpoint towards the research questions. So, the risk of lack of
accurate information exists. The ethical issue in this research
proposal with primary method of data collection indicates that the
primary data is collected from a few tourism companies operating
under tourism sector. So, the data cannot be completely reliable. It
can be possible that the data used in the research proposal may not
be reliable due to the differences in the viewpoint of different
tourism organizations.
Describe how your
findings
will be reported
This report includes the data techniques utilized for collecting the
information upon which findings of the research are based upon.
This research will be presented in hard and soft copy.
Time scale
The activities under this research plan can be divided in accordance with the time frame so that
the participants gets an idea about the activities which consumes more time and the activities
which are crucial for the project (Rahmawati, et. al., 2019). The dividing of the activities in
accordance with the time can be important for the timely completion of the research report. Work

Research Proposal 10
breakdown structure and Gantt chart are used for the splitting of the activities included in the
research report. The whole research report takes a time of 22 weeks to get completed till poster
presentation. The work break down structure helps in dividing the whole research into various
activities which can be carried out during the 22 weeks duration of the research report.
Serial
No.
Activities
1. Selecting the topic for the project
2. Setting up the research questions and objectives in first meeting
3. Getting approval from the tutor
4. Identification of research participants in second meeting
5. Collecting information from secondary sources
6. Discussing the information collected in third meeting
7. Preparation of research proposal
8. Collecting in depth information for the completion of research report
9. Preparing research report
10. Analyzing the accuracy of the data and getting feedback in fourth meeting
11. Identifying the findings of the research
12. Finalizing the research report after addressing the feedback obtained in last
meeting
13. Monitoring of the research
14. Poster presentation

Research Proposal 11
Gantt chart: The Gantt chart should be constructed for the above work break down structure so
that time frame is assigned to every activity. This chart is also helpful in keeping an eye on the
duration of the research. This chart helps in assigning the priority to each activity on the basis of
time required to complete the crucial activity. Here, it is given that the poster needs to be
presented before 6thy January, 2020. So, the whole project report needs to be completed before
this. The research project must be submitted before 16th December, 2019. These two dates are the
most crucial time scale for the given research report. The highest time is consumed during the
preparation of final report and identifying the data accuracy and taking feedback (Nurre and
Weir, 2017). The addressing of this feedback in the research report can take a lot time and it may
be possible that the project gets delayed due to addressing feedback. So, two weeks are assigned
for addressing the feedback. If any of the activities takes more time as assigned in this chart then,
this chart is helpful in adjusting the remaining time in the rest of the activities so that the due
date of the research submission cannot get affected.
Activities Time scale
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
Selecting the
topic for the
project
Setting up the
research
questions and
objectives in
first meeting
Getting
approval from
the tutor
Identification
of research
participants in
second
meeting
Collecting
information

Research Proposal 12
from
secondary
sources
Discussing the
information
collected in
third meeting
Preparation of
research
proposal
Collecting in
depth
information for
the completion
of research
report
Preparing final
research report
Analyzing the
accuracy of the
data and
getting
feedback in
fourth meeting
Identifying the
findings of the
research
Finalizing the
research report
in the fifth
meeting after
addressing the
feedback
obtained in last
meeting
Making of
poster
Poster
presentation