Pilgrim Tourism: Tourist Experience in Accommodation Using Content Analysis

Purpose: The aim of the study is to understand and examine the tourist experience of the pilgrims during their hotel accommodation towards their Pilgrim Tourism especially the religious places of Southern India.

Design/Methodology: Grounded Theory of Qualitative research approach was applied in the study to examine the perception of the pilgrim tourists in accommodation during their pilgrim tourism in Southern India studied for a period between August 2022 through December 2022. The 76 respondents belonged to Southern States of India namely, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. Thematic Content Analysis & Cohen’s Kappa Coefficient were conducted in MAXQDA & MS Excel respectively.

Key Findings: Cleanliness, Hotel Staff, and Location of the Accommodation are the key factors or themes influencing the tourism experience of the tourists during their Pilgrim Tourism in Southern parts of India. It can be inferred that the two categories of tourists (Male & Female) had “Substantial” level of agreement in tourism experience towards cleanliness, “Substantial” level of agreement towards staff interaction, and “Near perfect” level of agreement towards the location of their hotel accommodation.

Implications: A visitor spends roughly 70% of his or her vacation budget on travel and accommodation, the majority of which is paid in advance in the traveller's home country as poor sanitation and hygiene have a greater impact on the tourists. A tourist's visit must include cleanliness and sanitation. Management of concerned religious shrines must focus on ensuring cleanliness, and sanitation improvement in consultation with local government.