The Social Media Factor In The Development And Promotion Of Religious Tourism

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Turkish Studies - International Periodical For The Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic
Volume 8/7 Summer 2013, p. 733-744, ANKARA-TURKEY
THE SOCIAL MEDIA FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND
PROMOTION OF RELIGIOUS TOURISM*
M. Murat YEŞİL**
ABSTRACT
Tourism and religion have been in co-operation with each other
due to the"Hajj pilgrimage" throughout history. The concept of religious
tourism of today is based on this co-operation. All sectors of tourism,
including religious tourism, need publicity first and then to market their
destinations and the travel programs for survival. The emerging "social
media networks " that appeared after the developments in Internet
technology are thought to be useful tools in both fields. Scientific
researches have discovered a strong relationship between the use of
social media and consumers' purchasing decisions or renunciation.
This relationship can be used as an efficient support in promoting and
marketing of destinations and tour programs in religious tourism
industry. According to reseachers, people, who share their past travel
experiences with friends and relatives on the social media, can be
effective on the travel plans of others, from choosing destinations to
hotels and restaurants. Social media is seen as a great tool of
promotion and marketing for all kinds of businesses but like any other
tools, social media have useful and harmful aspects. If they are used
cleverly, social media can carry businesses to distant horizons beyond
their imaginations but improper use of social media can do more harm
than good. There is no study which examines the role of social media in
promoting and development of religious tourism. The purpose of this
study is to research the importance of the role that social media can
play in the development and promotion of religious tourism and
produce solutions to probable problems that may arise.
Key Words: social media, religious tourism, faith tourism
* A different version of this article, in Turkish, were presented at the International Conference on Religious
Tourism and Tolerance that was organized by the Tourism Faculty of Necmettin Erbakan University in
Konya /Turkey between the dates of May 09-12, 2013.
Bu makale Crosscheck sistemi tarafından taranmış ve bu sistem sonuçlarına göre orijinal bir makale olduğu tespit
edilmiştir.
** Assisant Professor, Necmettin Erbakan University Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Department of Public
Relations and Advertising, El-mek: myesil@konya.edu.tr

734 M. Murat YELŞİL
Turkish Studies
International Periodical For the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic
Volume 8/7 Summer 2013
İNANÇ TURİZMİNİN TANITIMINDA VE GELİŞİMİNDE SOSYAL
MEDYA FAKTÖRÜ
ÖZET
Turizm ile din tarih boyunca “Hac ziyaretleri” sayesinde
birbirleriyle işbirliği halinde olmuşlar. Bugünkü inanç turizmi
kavramının temeli bu işbirliğine dayanmaktadır. İnanç turizmi de dahil
olmak üzere turizmin tüm sektörlerinin varlıklarını sürdürebilmeleri
için önce tanıtıma sonra da destinasyonlarını ve bu destinasyonlarda
uygulayacakları gezi programlarını pazarlamaya ihtiyaçları vardır.
İnternet teknolojisinin gelişmesiyle ortaya çıkan “sosyal medya”
organları, her iki alanda da rahatlıkla kullanılabilecek uygun araçlar
olarak görülmektedir. Yapılan bilimsel araştırmalarda sosyal medya
kullanımı ile müşterilerin satınalma veya vazgeçme kararları arasında
güçlü bir ilişkinin var olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu ilişki, inanç turizmi
sektöründe destinasyonların ve tur programlarının pazarlanmasında
etkin bir destek olarak kullanılabilir. Araştırmacılara göre, sosyal
medya organları aracılığıyla gezi izlenimlerini eş, dost arkadaşlarıyla
paylaşan kişiler, yakın bir zaman içinde bir yerlere gezi yapmayı
planlayan başka kişilerin gezi destinasyonlarından, kalacakları otellere,
yemek yiyecekleri lokantaların seçimine kadar tüm gezi planları
üzerinde büyük ölçüde etkili olabilmektedirler. Sosyal medya her tür iş
kolu için çok faydalı bir tanıtım ve pazarlama aracı olarak
görülmektedir. Ancak her araç gibi sosyal medyanın da faydalı ve
zararlı yönleri vardır. Sosyal medya, kendisini akıllıca kullanan
işyerlerini hayalini bile kuramayacakları uzak ufuklara taşır ama aksi
durumlarda ise faydadan daha çok zarar getirir. Literatürde, sosyal
medya faktörünün, inanç turizminin tanıtım ve gelişmesinde
oynayabileceği rol üzerinde yapılmış bir araştırmaya rastlanmıyor. Bu
çalışmanın amacı, hem literatürdeki bu boşluğu doldurmak hem de
sosyal medyanın, inanç turizminin tanıtım ve pazarlamasında
oynayabileceği rolün öneminin araştırmak ve ortaya çıkabilecek
muhtemel sorunlara çözüm yolları üretilmesi olacaktır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: inanç turizmi, sosyal medya, dini turizm,
1. Introduction
All branches of the tourism sector, including religious tourism had to cooperate with the
media constantly, in order to survive, throughout their thistory. Tourism, as an industry, can carry
out their traveling programs to larger areas through the media. News and comments in the media
about destinations can be effective on the decisions of people who are planning to travel.
Growing numbers of travellers search and consume travel information created by
other travellers for their travel planning and then share their experiences when they return
from their trips. Given the experiential nature of tourism, the information created by other
travellers is even more important and influential in the search and decision-making process
than when considering other types of purchases (Gretzel, 2011, Para. 2).
The emerging "social media networks " that appeared after the developments in Internet
technology, opened up new horizons for the tourism industry representatives beyond their

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Volume 8/7 Summer 2013
imaginations and started to promote them to people in distant lands and in a short time have
become an integral part of tourism. An article published by USA Today, explains how the social
media became an inseparable component of tourism industry in detail:
Social media are being incorporated at a rapid rate into every part of a journey,
from making the reservation to finding out where to eat. For instance: As of August, Delta
passengers can buy tickets on Delta's Facebook page. Southwest has three staffers
dedicated to monitoring and responding to queries made through social-media channels.
Marriott is launching its Marriott Courtyard Facebook page Tuesday to issue messages
about the chain and related information that might interest customers. (Jone & Yu, 2010,
para. 6).
With these findings in mind, we can infer that like other sub-sectors of tourism industry,
religious tourism also should make use of social media networks which may be considered the
most developed and sophisticated promotional media tool of our age. A resarch paper (2013)
points out the necessity of social media use for the tourism companies to stay afloat in the market:
In order to reach a larger population, companies need to participate in social media
websites. Unlike traditional websites, social media allows companies to form one-on-one
relationships with their clientele. The social media effects on tourism directly influence a
company's profit margin and ability to succeed in a competitive environment. Companies
need to develop a solid social media marketing plan to stay afloat. (Thomas, 2013, para.
7).
Fotis et al. (2011) who have similar findings with Thomas report that as the social media
become effective, the possibility, for people, to make changes in travel plans increases (p. 14).
That’s why, it can be said that religious tourism which addresses a growing market, should
cooperate closely with social media networks in order to promote her travel programs to people
who make travel plans according to the comments published in social media networks.
The purpose of this study is to find out the importance of the role that social media can play
in the development and promotion of religious tourism and recommend possible solutions to
problems that may arise from this interaction.
Since the concepts of religious tourism and social media are new comparing with the
traditional ones, there are not much studies which we can examine the interaction process. There
are some studies which examine the relationships between tourism sector and social media (Fotis et
al., 2011; Boz & Unal, n.d.; Ranjha, 2010 ). There are also a lot of studies on tourism sector and
traditional media relations in general (Woodside & Ronkainen, 1982; Scott, 2007; Gonzales, 2008;
Meehan, 2008; Harrett & Benjamin, 2009; Bingqi et al., 2011; Govers et al., 2007; Popescu &
Corboş, 2012). As we stated above there is a gap in the literature on social media use in religious
tourism companies and the probable problems that may arise from this interaction.
The aim of this study is to fill this gap and prepare a suitable scientific background to
future scholars who wish to make more detailed research on the same issue and contribute to
development of religious tourism both in Turkey and in the world.
The rest of this paper is structured as follows: The first section gives detailed definitions of
the concepts of religious tourism and social media networks and a theoretical background of the
relationships between religious tourism and social media use. This is followed by explanation of
research method. Then comes the findings section. The discussion, limitation of this research and
recommendations for future studies and results (closing sentences) will take place in the last
section.

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1.1 The concept of religious tourism and historical background
According to a study, religious tourism which emerged as a new branch of the tourism
industry, introduced herself to the world through the " pilgrimage travels" for the first time in
history . (Rodrige, 2012, p. 1).
Trips to sites that are considered sacred by Islam, Christianity or any other religion is called
"religious tourism" or "faith tourism" in English (Religious and Pilgrimage Tourism International,
2012, para. 1) . The areas covered by the concept of "religious tourism" is not just limited to visits
to the sacred places like pilgrimage. Religious festivals, meetings and different activities carried
out for religious purposes are considered to be in the scope of the religious tourism. For instance,
different organizations like Mevlana (Rumi) week activities organized each year in Konya, Turkey,
Christmas and Ester festivals in Romania (Popescu ve Corboş, 2012, p. 23) and International
Conference on Religious Tourism and Tolerance held by The Tourism Faculty of Necmettin
Erbakan University of Konya may be classified as activities of religious tourism.
Analysis of the literature on religious tourism sources shows that there is a long-running
debate over the concept and scope on religious tourism. The main actors of this unending conflict
are the theologians and tourism industry representatives. Then come the scholars, some of which
support one group and some back up the other group. According to Rodrigo, theologians of both
of the two great religions, Islam and Christianity, and their supporters have similar points on
opposing the use of two concepts “religion” and “tourism” side by side: “Theologians do not want
to call religious trips as religious tourism since they believe religion and tourism are two different
concepts both in the scope and the aim” (Rodrigo, 2012, p. 9).
Along with these two groups there are some scholars like Holderness (2009) who argues
that both religious and non-religious people should participate in the religious tour organizations (p.
1). Coming up with a different idea, Rojo (2007) asserts that religious tourism is turning into a
cultural tourism: “….what is known nowadays as religious tourism, after numerous centuries
nourishing itself exclusively of religious people that made a pilgrimage to religious places solely
motivated bytheir beliefs, has a clearly tendency towards the cultural tourism” (p. 57). Differing
from these scholars Shinde (2010) put forward a thesis that defends the division of religious
tourism into three sub-sectors: “….at least three different yet related submarket segments can be
identified in religious tourism: cultural tourism, spiritual tourism and religious travel” (p. 527).
Taking into account of these discussions on the issue, World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO) recommends tolerance and points out that more and more attention needed to inform the
parties involved in the debate:
The debate on the importance of, and distinction between, tourism as a ritual and as
a form of spirituality has not been conclusive. ….at the individual and social level, and
from the cultural and theoretical point of view, in order to realise its benefits and
circumvent or limit its negative aspects. ….there is a need for more and precise
information on religious tourism as opposed to cultural tourism. (Religious Tourism in
Asia and the Pacific, 2011, p. 14).
“Religious tourism, whose popularity is on the rise in the international arena, has become a
rapidly growing and developing industry. More than 300 million people have been traveling to Hajj
or other religious visits in every year. It’s annual return is $ 18 billion” (Leisuregrouptravel.com,
2009; Religious Tourism in Asia and the Pacific, 2011, p. 25).
A study conducted by Saltzman reports that 900 thousand people went abroad for religious
purposes in the United States in 2008 and the total volume of religious tourism market of the

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country is estimated to be $ 16 billion (2010). Special attention of people to the issue of religious
visits may be thought to be the reason to reach such high figures in the American religious tourism
market in terms of volume. The findings of the Wright support Saltzman: “The Travel Industry
Association of America reported that one in four travelers are currently interested in spiritual
vacations ” (Wright, 2008, p. 33).
The economic crises that was seen in countries around the world from time to time can also
affect the tourism sector but that is not the case for religious tourism sector as Crain (1996) (as
cited by Rodrigo, 2012) says:
Pilgrimage travel is often less prone to economic ups and downs in the market
place. Because faith-based travellers are committed travellers they tend to save for these
religious experiences and travel despite the state of the economy….Faith-based travel can
provide a steady flow of income to a local tourism economy (p. 4).
1.2 Concept of social media: Theoretical background of the emergence and
development
Unlike traditional media, there are a variety of definitions of social media, the content of
which prepared by the users. For example, Weber (2009) (as cited: Boz ve Unal, n.d.) defines it as
a virtual environment where people with common interests share ideas and comments (p. 467).
According to Kaplan & Haenlein (2010) social media is a group of Internet applications based on
Web 2.0 technology that give the users the opportunity to produce content and share it with other
people (p. 60). Boyd & Ellison (2008) come up with a detailed definition:
We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1)
construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of
other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of
connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of
these connections may vary from site to site (p. 211).
The world agenda has become a field, formerly dominated by newspapers, magazines, TV,
radio, as well as traditional giant media outlets, where the man on the street can be effective by
making use of social media which is sometimes defined as the new media or social networks.
“Social media, unlike traditional media, is aggregated and produced by the general public. Content
is distributed to the masses on the Internet free of charge” (Thomas, 2013, p. 7).
Researchers made many experiments at different times to establish virtual environments,
where people can stay in touch with each other, share their thoughts and comments through
Internet, since the first e-mail is sent in 1971. “TheGlobe.com”, the first social network was
established by 20-year-old college students Todd Krizelman ve Stephan Paternot in 1995(10 big
dot.com flops, 2010, March 10, para. 1).. Since then a lot of people made of different initiatives in
order to develop more sophisticated social media networks and as a result of this, more than 500
social media networks are established (Craig, 2013, para. 4). A major study conducted by Boyd &
Ellison (2008) asserts that “SixDegrees.com” is the first social network site by characterizing it as
“the first recognizable social network” (p. 214).
After this initiative, a large number media outlets, that can be called social media, began
operating in virtual environment, until the foundation of all-time record-breaking Facebook with a
1 billion members.
In 1997, two years after the occurrence of the term “weblog”, the first major sub-
structures such as Blogger and LiveJournal which designed for that purpose was
introduced. Blogging has become even more important after the release of WordPress in

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2004. The opening of Wikipedia in 2000, StumbleUpon in 2001, Friendster in 2002,
Myspace in 2003 and Facebook in 2004 have been effective on socialization in the digital
environment (Sosyal medya tarihi, n.d., para. 2).
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, MySpace, You Tube, Newsvine, StumbleUpon, Digg
ve Xing are considered to be the top players of all social media networks (The complete guide to
social media, 2010, pp. 13-15).
1.3 Relationships between social media and religious tourism: An interaction
history
The business community obtained a good opportunity with the development of social
media outlets, which spread around the world and give their users the right to produce their own
content and send it to any country they want. Hundreds of thousands of companies from different
regions of the world have become active members of social media networks in order to make use of
this unique opportunity.
It is an ongoing process. Everyday more and more companies are registering with the
social media networks. Registering is easiest part of the process then comes the difficult question:
“How to use social media effectively?” The answer is to train company staff on social media use.
Then allow them to practice for some time to gain experience. Once training is over the staff will
use social media cleverly and the company will be able promote her products and services not only
in the region they based but in every part of the world where Internet access is possible. Kaplan &
Haenlein (2010) point out the same issue: “Using Social Media is not an easy task and may require
new ways of thinking, but the potential gains are far from being negligible” (p. 67).
Introduction of social media, which provides an easy and cost-effective promotion
opportunity, were met with great interest in the tourism industry, too. Social media is useful for
every company but for tourism companies it is essential. Social media use made it possible to
promote travel destinations and the programs, such as travel packages and tours with very low
prices. Some studies on social media are encouraging tourism companies to use social media in
their businesses:
Social media has made a huge impact on essentially every major industry across
the world, and the business of travel and hospitality has reaped the rewards perhaps as well
as any other commercial venture. Travel and tourism depends heavily on the use of word-
of-mouth to spread opinions and recommendations, and social platforms such as Twitter
and Facebook allow customers to easily share tips and suggestions, which can be
enormously valuable when positive (Bennett, 2012, para.1).
“Social media such as Facebook and Myspace, provide instant ways to reach
thousands or millions of people, Twitter is a fast way to get a few words out, and social
media, such as Linkedin connect people interested in business relationships” (Tourism &
More, 2011, para. 3).
“Social media is free and does not require upfront costs besides labor. The short-term
"buzz" quickly transforms into long-term reputation and trust ” (Thomas, n.d, para. 8).
Taking advantage of the opportunities offered by social media, a lot of people who have
become users of this media share their experiences with friends and colleagues around the world.
Some studies on social media use report that sharing experiences with others plays an important
role on the decision of people, who live in different regions or countries, to purchase any products
and services or to give up buying. Groups of friends sharing their work and travel experiences in
social media are becoming effective on consumers decisions. This influence is also true in the field

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of travel and tourism (Gretzel, 2011; Tourism & More, 2011; Gonzalo, 2012; "Social media
inspires travels (2013). With similar findings to the studies mentioned above Fotis et al. (2011)
add: “Social media are used during all stages of the holiday planning process (before, during and
after holidays)…. ” (p. 13).
At this point, a question may arise: “Do people who are planning a trip change their
decisions trusting the comments of some other people even they don’t know? Is it a logical?” The
study of Gretzel (2011) reached findings that confirm above discussed supposition:
Trust levels are very high and that a considerable number of people even prefer the
opinions of unknown others over opinions of friends and relatives…. Experimental studies
we conducted have also shown that individuals are pretty good at detecting false reviews,
and this ability increases with the length of the review (para. 6).
Many large scale and small companies have already taken first steps in social media use.
“Of the Fortune Global 100 companies, 65 percent have active Twitter accounts, 54 percent have
Facebook fan pages, 50 percent have YouTube video channels and 33 percent have corporate blogs
(Social Media: Business Benefits and Security, Governance and Assurance Perspectives (2010, p.
3).
A resarch paper by Shaw reports that companies do not use social media professionally.
Emphasising on the dangers of the improper use of social media the paper says:
…. the Social Media platforms implies that a business would need a solid strategy
to tap these media for business and brand promotion because an ill-conceived campaign,
backed by a flawed Social Media strategy could become a major bottleneck to the areas of
brand promotion, brand awareness and brand positioning (2011, para. 1).
In a previous research (2010) by Harvard Business Review reports that most companies are
not using social media effectively. The percengate of those that claim to use it properly is only 12
%. Many companies still do not know how to make use of social media tools and apply them for
best use of their business growing. (the New Conversation: taking Social Media from talk to action,
2010, pp. 1-4). The result of a survey carried out by Stanford University found enough evidence to
confirm that companies do not use social media properly. The survey conducted with CEO’s,
Board Members and other high level administrators, whose age range is between 50 and 60 years
reached important findings.
According to these findings, social media play an importan role in marketing, and it is a
useful tool in reaching the customer and making face to face talk but it is a harmful tool at the same
time if it is not used properly. Preventive measures are not taken against the property damage
incurred due to improper use of social media companies, and hazards such as loss of reputation.
Senior executives and directors do not make use of and do not trust the information coming from
social media to use for their companies. Companies do not have any infrastructure which to process
the information they gather from the social media and do not know how to use this information (F.
Larcker, S., Larcker, & Tayan, 2012, p. 1).
A white paper published by ISACA advises companies to pay attention to the risks of
social media use:
….It is therefore important that the enterprise create a social media strategy and
have a plan to address the risks that accompany the technology. While the use of social
media does have inherent risks that could negatively impact enterprise security, it also
presents opportunities such as accelerated business growth and improved brand
recognition. Therefore, simply choosing to prohibit the use of social media can also incur

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an opportunity cost based on forgoing these potential business benefits (Social Media:
Business Benefits and Security, Governance and Assurance Perspectives, 2010, p. 5).
It seems that there is still a long way to go to for all companies to reach the professional
standarts in social media use.
2. Research Method
In this study, I used descriptive literature review method. During the research period I
carefully reviewed and analyzed all available related articles, conference presentations, books, four
survey reports by Harvard Business Review (the New Conversation: taking Social Media from talk
to action, 2010), World Tourism Organization (Religious Tourism in Asia and the Pacific, 2011),
Stanford University (Social media survey, 2012), ISACA (Social Media: Business Benefits and
Security, Governance and Assurance Perspectives, 2010), media news, reports and Internet
documents on social media and religious tourism.
3. Findings
There is a dispute between theologians and the tourism sector representatives on definition
of religious tourism and the areas covered.
Social media use is very important in religious tourism sector as in the case of other sub-
sectors of tourism industry. If religious tourism sector companies use social media properly, they
can get good results in promoting their companies, destinations and the tour programs.
There is a strong relationship between comments, written and shared about travel
experiences of people and consumer decisions. Comments, written and shared about travel
experiences of people on social media are becoming effective on consumers decisions.
Social media use has risks as well as advantages. Improper use of social media can cause
poperty damage and loss of reputation.
Most of the companies do not use social media professionaly. They don’t know how to use
the information they get from social media.
3.1 Discussion
Findings of this study show that there is a long-running debate over the concept and scope
on religious tourism. This old dispute over the concept and scope on religious tourism is an
important issue which may be hindering the development of this industry. It can be said that if this
conflict ends, new opportunities may arise for religious tourism industry, such as opening new
destinations, attracting more people. This will contribute religious tourism companies and people
living in new destinations economically.
The findings obtained from this research produced enough evidence to explain and support
the main subject of this study. These findings confirm that if tourism companies, including
religious tourism companies use social media properly, they will gain from it.
“Social media such as Facebook and Myspace, provide instant ways to reach
thousands or millions of people, twitter is a fast way to get a few words out, and social
media, such as Linkedin connect people interested in business relationships” (Tourism &
More, 2011, para. 3).
“Social media is free and does not require upfront costs besides labor. The short-term
"buzz" quickly transforms into long-term reputation and trust” (Thomas, nd, para, 8).

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In general, our results indicate that sharing experiences with others in social media plays an
important role on the decision of people, who live in different regions or countries, to purchase any
products and services or to give up buying. That is in line with the findings of studies of (Gretzel,
2011; Tourism & More, 2011; Gonzalo, 2012; Social media inspires travels, 2013).
Our results confirms that improper use of social media, brings more harm than good. Social
media use has risks as well as advantages. Improper use of Social media can cause poperty damage
and loss of reputation.
Finally, our findings indicates there is a long way to go for most of the companies to learn
effective use social media.
3.2 Implications
The results of this study is thought to be useful both for religious tourism companies and
academics. Current study, which examines the importance of the role of social media use in the
development and promotion of religious tourism and possible solutions to problems that may arise
from this interaction, has prepared the appropriate scientific infrastructure for future research.
Mobile social media and religious tourism relationships may be the future research subject. The
weak side of this study is to keep the universe of research with literature.
3.3 Results
The purpose of this study was to find out the importance of the role that social media
played in the development and promotion of religious tourism and recommend possible solutions to
problems that may arise from this interaction.
The findings of the study produced enough evidence to explain and support the main
subject of this study. These findings confirm that social media plays an effective role in the
development of religious tourism.
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