Tourist Experience at Religious Sites: A Case Study of the Chinese Visiting the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

ABSTRACT

Studies empirically examining visitor experience at religious sites were limited. This study investigated the Chinese tourists’ experience of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, an Islamic religious site in UAE. Online reviews posted by the Chinese tourists were analyzed with a semantic network analysis method. The results revealed that the core dimensions of the Chinese tourists’ experiences could be captured by 7 themes. The study confirmed previous findings that tourists’ perception of Muslim destination tended to focus on arts and architecture, famous individuals, conduct and dress code. It was concluded that the visit provided a milieu that enabled the Chinese tourists to tap into the spirituality of the Others. However, the underlying deep-rooted Islamic values seemed not fully comprehended by the tourists.

摘要

学术界对宗教场所游客体验的实证研究存在不足。这项研究调查了中国游客对阿联酋伊斯兰宗教场所谢赫扎耶德大清真寺的体验。研究采用语义网络分析方法对中国游客发布的在线评论进行了分析。结果显示，中国游客体验的核心维度可以由七个主题来概括。和先前的研究结果相一致，该研究证实了游客对穆斯林目的地的看法往往集中在艺术和建筑、名人、行为和着装规范方面。此外，对谢赫扎耶德大清真寺的访问还提供了一种情境，使中国游客能够尝试性的体验异域他乡的精神性但是对于隐含在景点中的更深层的伊斯兰教价值观，游客似乎并没有完全的理解。

KEYWORDS:

• Tourist experience
• religious sites
• Islamic religion
• online tourist review
• Chinese outbound tourists
• Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

关键词:

• 游客体验
• 宗教场所
• 伊斯兰教
• 在线旅游评论
• 中国出境游客
• 谢赫扎耶德大清真寺

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jue Huang

Jue Huang is Assistant Professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at United Arab Emirates University, UAE. Her main research interests include tourist behavior, tourism and hospitality management, and social media marketing (E-mail: [email protected]).

Jing Chu

Jing Chu is Lecturer in the Beijing Hospitality Institute at Beijing International Studies University, Beijing, China. Her research interests focus on consumer behavior in tourism, luxury tourism experience, customer satisfaction measurement in the hotel industry (E-mail: [email protected]).