Religious Tourism at Tana Chirkos & St. Kirstos Semra: Contemporary Issues and Prospects for Sustainable Tourism

Abstract

Religious tourism is not a new phenomenon or new practice. It has recently received considerable attention in both academia and the public at large. However, even though Ethiopia is endowed with a variety of religious tourism activities, its contemporary issues, and future prospects haven’t been utilised, outlined and managed. In the Amhara region, in the South Gondar zone, Tana Chirkos and Kirstos Semra are among the outstanding sites where lots of religious travellers are going and religious tourism activities are held. Thus, this study stands with the general objective of investigating the issues and future prospects of religious tourism development at Tana Chirkos and Kirstos Semra. To study this, a descriptive design is employed. Respondents were selected using the non-probability sampling method through convenience and purposive sampling methods and content analysis was undertaken. The findings prove that acculturation and modernisation, looting and elicit trafficking problems, dependability, poor management ability, and commercialisation are current issues whereas increasing the level of awareness, widespread institutions, government policies, untouched treasures at the sites, and technology advancement are future prospects. Generally, to enhance religious tourism sustainably, all the tourism stakeholders should work together.

Keywords

• issues
• prospects
• religious
• religious tourism
• monastery