Religious activities
Religious travel is not a new phenomenon. Religion has been an integral motive for undertaking journeys and is usually considered oldest form of non economic travel (Jackowski & Smith, 1992). Every year millions of people travel to major pilgrimage destinations around the world both ancient and modern origin (Timothy & Olsen, 2006). There is small but important literature that focuses on the characteristics and travel pattern of religiously motivated tourists. Rinschede (1992) differentiates between different forms of religious tourism based on time involved and distance travelled namely short and long term religious tourism. The short term type involves travel nearby religious attractions, while long term means travelling the world. However the motive for such travel is a journey towards the perfection (Timothy & Olsen, 2006).