Understanding Hajj travel: a dynamic identity perspective

ABSTRACT

The present study brings an explanation for how tourist–pilgrims construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct their identities throughout the Hajj travel. The study focuses on the embodied, symbolic, and experiential aspects of this experience, creating idiosyncratic meanings for individuals. This travel is conceptualized as a religious endeavor and a consumptive-touristic activity at the same time, studied within a cultural context shaped by social, religious, and individual values, which is called the Consumer Culture Theory. This study also presents a new perspective by decomposing the pilgrim–tourist continuum and negating the opposite ends of pure tourists and pure pilgrims. Qualitative methodology is employed to provide a deeper understanding and a thicker explanation. In-depth interview data is collected from 38 individuals, in addition to findings gathered from prolonged observation of religious settings and several social media accounts. Findings draw attention to different groups of pilgrim–tourists, named as Mortals, Cleaners, Journalists, and Seekers. Findings also indicate that each individual can illustrate the characteristics of different groups, and that self-transformation can interactively occur among different groups of pilgrim–tourists. Identity appears as an ongoing project to be negotiated in the Hajj context, intertwined with the leisure aspect of this religious/touristic encounter.

KEYWORDS:

• Pilgrimage
• pilgrim–tourist
• self transformation
• self
• identity
• qualitative research

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yunus Kalender

Yunus Kalender is a graduate student at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey, the Department of Business Administration. He is continuing his education with specialization on Marketing and Consumer Behavior. His main research interests include the interaction between and among consumers and markets. He is currently working on a research project on how consumers build romantic relationships or develop relationship habits by utilizing consumption objects and services available on the market. [email protected].

Berna Tari Kasnakoglu

Berna Tari Kasnakoglu is an Associate Professor of Marketing at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, the department of Business Administration. She obtained her PhD degree in Marketing from Bilkent University, where she focused on the (medical) consumption of aesthetic surgery and qualitative research methodologies. She has special interest in marketing ethics and Consumer Culture Theory (CCT). Her research interests particularly focus on co-creation and service relationships. She engages in research with mixed methodologies using qualitative and quantitative techniques. [email protected].