Residents’ attitudes to tourists visiting their mosques: a case study from Istanbul, Turkey

ABSTRACT

Resident perception of tourism impacts has been one of the most studied areas of tourism. However, there is an extremely limited literature on resident perceptions of religious tourism development, especially in non-Western countries. This study investigated the attitudes of local residents toward tourists visiting four important mosques in Istanbul, Turkey and their perception of religious tourism development. All residents surveyed were practicing Muslims who prayed in a mosque at least once a year. We found that, in general, local residents are supportive of tourists visiting their mosque, but the level of support may differ based on the demographic and cultural background of the residents as well as on the number of tourists visiting the mosque.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious tourism
• resident perception
• Istanbul
• Turkey
• Islam
• mosque

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following students for providing assistance with the questionnaires: Çetin Duran, Tuğba Esen, Emine Gülbaş, Betül Karakaş, Müşerref Özbey, Hacer Şahin, H. Cansın Toprak and Halil Yıldırım.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

István O. Egresi http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0090-5793

Notes

1 http://www.gazetevatan.com/diyanet--turkiye-de-79-bin-096-cami-var-188144-gundem/

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Fatih University Grant [grant number: P51061201_Y].