Impact of COVID-19 on Global Religious Tourism and Pilgrimages

Nhamo, Godwell; Dube, Kaitano; Chikodzi, David

The past three decades have witnessed an increase in zoonotic infections leading to severe effects on global public health. These emerge and re-emerge when animal infections breach species barriers to infect human beings. At the same time, the world has witnessed an increase in the popularity and commodification of religious tourism and pilgrimages. During religious festivals, there is always the risk of infectious diseases being spread, which may result in these festivals being postponed and/or cancelled. This chapter examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on religious tourism and pilgrimages around the world, especially the Hajj and the Umrah, both hosted in Saudi Arabia. Document analyses supplemented with fine-grain analysis were the preferred methods for collecting and analysing data. The research observed that, globally, iconic religious events had to be cancelled, postponed or significantly scaled down, resulting in reduced tourist arrivals. It also emerged that decisions that were made to cancel, postpone or significantly scale down such festivals or pilgrimages may have saved the world from aggravated circumstances causing a spike in COVID-19 numbers. The chapter recommends that aggressive marketing for religious and pilgrimage tourism be embarked on once COVID-19 has been contained and people are comfortable travelling again. Where possible, some events could be rescheduled, although this will not be possible with religious holidays like Easter and Ramadan. The chapter also acknowledges the interventions made by several governments to mitigate the impacts COVID-19, which could be repeated in future if still effective for similar pandemics.