Modeling attributes of religious tourism: A study of Kumbh Mela, India

Extant literature on religious tourism has not extensively focused to demarcate the antecedents of tourist satisfaction and its impact on their event loyalty. This paucity of information has led the present study to develop an integrated framework that postulates the complex relationship among five latent attributes namely motivation, service quality, safety, satisfaction and event loyalty. To evaluate these attributes, survey was done in the Mela area and data was collected using structured questionnaire. A random sampling technique is followed for data collection, and 2326 samples are considered for final analysis. The hypothesized relationships were tested by considering the case study of Kumbh Mela held at Ujjain, India in 2016. Factor analysis followed by structural equation modeling (SEM) technique is used to examine these hypothesized relationships. The results obtained from SEM signifies that given the perceived motivation, service quality and safety levels are fulfilled, pilgrims in a religious gathering are more likely to feel satisfied with their visit and presumably show a positive intent to revisit or recommend others to experience Kumbh Mela. The empirical findings provide essential insights regarding enriching visitor’s experience; which can be of interest to event managers and planners of such mega religious gathering.