Economic Contributions of Pilgrimage Tourism to Local Development: A Systematic Review of Empirical Evidence

Abstract

Tourism is one of the most age-old types of human movement, and is a major contributor to economic activity in the areas where pilgrimage is practiced. Pilgrimage is primarily associated with religion, to a duty of ritual, to a sense of spiritual fulfilment, to cultural memory, to sacred geography, but also brings about measurable economic effects in many forms: pilgrim expenditure, jobs, entrepreneurship, livelihoods in the informal sector, local tax revenue and infrastructure requirements. The paper offers an empirical review framework that is systematic and empirical in analyzing the role of pilgrimage tourism in local development. The review follows the reporting principles in PRISMA 2020 focusing studies that examine the economic and livelihood effects of pilgrim tourism, religious or sacred site-tourism and faith-based tourism. It is based on the findings of the key strands of the evidence: visitor expenditure and local demand; employment and informal livelihoods; entrepreneurship and small business development; regional value added and multiplier effects; local revenue and public services; and sustainability and distributional challenges. It recommends that the expenditure by visitors, if kept in the local economy, can be a source of local value creation, small enterprises, job creation, linkages with local suppliers and overall community welfare. Several shortcomings in evidence, however, exist, including seasonality, leakage, weak infrastructure, crowding, environmental pressure, and distribution bias and the absence of measuring informal labour. Some methodological issues in the literature are the use of only one-site case studies, no longitudinal evidence and the use of input-output, social accounting matrix, computable general equilibrium, and travel cost approaches. The article also contributes in developing an organisation framework of the fragmented empirical evidence and suggests future research agenda on how to develop more robust measures of pilgrimage tourism contributions to inclusive and sustainable local development.