Introduction
The Subject of the Study
Religious pilgrims remain a crucial factor in boosting and sustaining tourism in Saudi Arabia. In 2019, the Hajj revenue contributed to 7 percent of Saudi Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as Havrlant et al. (2020) report. Around two million pilgrims visit Mecca every year during the time of Dhu al-Hijjah to do Hajj. The Hajj, or pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, is a major accomplishment in Islam (Ross, 2021). In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID- 19 a global pandemic and issued various directives relating to the way of conduct to mitigate the transmission of the virus. Some of the instructions included social distancing, avoiding gatherings, and curfews. These directions affected the tourism sector across the globe as traveling was highly restricted and groups limited (Alanezi et al., 2020). As different nations restricted raveling, Saudi Arabia was not an exception. In 2020, the country limited the number of local and international pilgrims visiting Mecca to 60,000 from an earlier 2 million pilgrims who visit for Hajj (Alam, 2021). The study seeks to analyze the effect of COVID-19 on religious tourism in Saudi Arabia.
Purpose of the Study
The study will show how COVID-19 affected religious tourism in the country and give insight into the behavior change in Mecca after COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic. The research also aims at evaluating the existing remedies on how to deal with the pandemic to protect the Saudi Arabia tourism sector from its adverse effects. The study thereby aids in establishing knowledge on how the COVID- 19 pandemic has affected Islamic pilgrimage as a tourism activity in Saudi Arabia.
Research Gap
Different studies have been conducted analyzing different implications of the COVID- 19 on pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. Other studies offer findings relating to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global religious tourism. The majority of prior studies seeking to study the consequences of the pandemic on religious tourism have had to analyze the effect of the pandemic for the year 2019. The timing of this study is perfect as it allows a comprehensive analysis of the impact of COVID-19 from onset to duration, covering the best of 2020. Apart from adding literature on this topic, this study will further develop future research projects. The research will offer empirical research that dwells on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourist destinations.
Significance of the Research Problem
This study is critical as it aims to provide data on religious tourism in Saudi Arabia before and after the pandemic. Following the study’s objective, the research question is how COVID-19 affected religious tourism in Saudi Arabia. Before handling the research question, the paper first reviews the available literature. The study then employs a quantitative approach to gather primary data relating to some of the implications of the COVID-19 to religious tourism in Saudi Arabia.
Literature Review
Pathogen-Stress Theory
The research employs pathogen-stress theory to analyze the risk of travel and management of the situation due to uncertainty that comes up with the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach also enhances knowledge on human behaviors regarding societal issues during a pandemic. The pathogen-stress theory refers to findings and ideas explaining how human beings solve a particular problem relating to the spread of disease. The concept draws different effects of human action towards pathogens and how the actions shape people’s activities and resolve issues in society. The proposition indicates that increased human interaction implies heightened contact, increasing the threat of transmission from one person to another. The concept states that as people grow in an environment high on pathogens, they get less welcoming to visitors. The argument postulates that these people become less exploratory, have fewer curios, and lower their probability of infection (Rahman et al., 2021). The proposition explains how humans behave in times of a pathogen threat, thereby being a perfect example to explain the development of containment measures and other guidelines developed in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The Effect of COVID-19 on Tourism in Mecca
Different scholars have sought to determine how the COVID-19 has affected tourism. A report by two scholars indicates that as a result of the pandemic, tourism declined by over 45% (Mecca and Gedoz, 2020). The majority of the people were not allowed to travel outside the country hence affecting the tourism sector (Yezli and Khan, 2020). The scholars also reported the effects of the pandemic as causing the prevention of entry of people from other countries to the host country (Yasin et al., 2020). The COVID- 19 was reported to affect the annual pilgrimage in Mecca as the government restricted gatherings and entry into the holy city of Mecca (Hassounah et al., 2020). The monarchy also barred its bounds to international “umrah” pilgrims and tourists from at least 25 nations in late February 2020 (Ebrahim and Memish, 2020). These containment measures saw millions of Islamic pilgrims blocked from fulfilling one and the last pillar of Islam. This Study does not explicitly explain the implications of COVID-19 pandemic to religious tourism; it provides knowledge of restriction of gathering and mass entry in the city of Mecca.
Religious Tourism before and during COVID-19 pandemic
Before the spread of the COVID-19, religious tourism was reported as a significant sector earning host nations millions of revenues. A study by Verma and Sarangi (2019) indicates that an estimated 600 million tourists visited Europe and Asia for religious tourism before the pandemic. After the development of the pandemic, the researchers suggest that religious tourists were highly restricted, with the host nation obtaining only a fraction of the expected visitors (Al-Shaker et al., 2020). According to the literature, different countries have undertaken various initiatives to erase the adverse effects brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic (Awaji, 2020). The scholars indicate that the Saudi government, through the ministry of Hajj ad Umrah, has developed a 3D version of the Masjid Al-Haram Mosque to enable the tourists have an idea about the place and layout of the mosque. However, the findings of Usman et al. (2020) indicate that the method has not been able to shelf the tourism sector from the adverse effects of COVID-19. In addition, the study by Al-Shaker et al. (2020) is not reliable as it provides a generalized finding of some of the attributes to ensure religious tourist revisit the host nations again. The study does not analyze the performance of religious tourism in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Crises Management and Importance of Mecca to Muslims
Different researches have shown several ways in which Covid 19 has affected tourism. Mecca ans Gedoz (2020) note that tourism declined by over 45% because of the pandemic. According to the study, most people were not allowed to travel outside the country, hence affecting the tourism sector. Literature indicates that Mecca’s annual festival has been disrupted by the change COVID- 19 pandemic (Kamuti, 2021). The authors suggest that the Saudi government is working to revive the economy, but this will only happen after the epidemic is under control. The monarchy barred its borders to foreign “umrah” pilgrims and tourists from at least 25 nations in late February 2020 (Thompson, 2020). This measure significantly affected the nation’s tourism sector, particularly religious tourism. The COVID-19 pandemic halted all travel into and out of Saudi Arabia in March.
The study adequately highlights the impact and causal effect of COVID-19 pandemic in Mecca. It illustrates how directives such as social distance, sanitization, curfews, and public gatherings prevent religious tourists from visiting the city (Mubarak and Zin, 2020). However, the studies mentioned above have relied on published articles and media reports instead of peer-reviewed journals and research findings. Another limitation is that most of the studies are based on opinion papers instead of case studies. It implies that these studies do not offer solid evidence, thereby questioning the reliability of their findings.
Methodology
The procedure of data collection is necessary for the process of developing a comprehensive research proposal. This proposal employs the quantitative research technique, which necessitates the employment of different data collection procedures. The research method enables the researcher to analyze measurements or numerical data gathered from questionnaires, polls, or surveys. The technique allows faster collection of data from a considerable sample size. The reason is that the methodology employs random data collection techniques; it improves the reliability of the data as it minimizes biasness (Apuke, 2017). The research aims at deriving different conclusions from the data obtained from the sample population.
The research aims at using both closed and open-ended questionnaires to its target population, which includes professionals dealing with tourism in Saudi Arabia. Questionnaires will provide preliminary information of the situation and the exact details of how tourism has been affected (Thwaites Bee and Murdoch-Eaton, 2016). To obtain data from a broad target population outside the locality of this research, the Study will also employ online surveys. Online surveys provide researchers with an opportunity to increase their productivity due to their ability to save time (Evans and Mathur, 2018). Through online surveys, data is collected faster and assures efficiency when transferring the data to a spreadsheet or statistical software for further analysis. An example of an online survey platform that this research is likely to use is the SurveyMonkey online platform.
Reliability and Validity
Data validity and reliability refer to different techniques used to assess the quality of a given research. Data validity refers to the accuracy of the measure used within the research, while reliability refers to the consistency of the action (Noble and Smith, 2015). The study will achieve both the validity and reliability standards; data rectification will be employed. The process involves contacting tourist agencies in Saudi Arabia and obtaining data from the Saudi Ministry of Tourism. This technique consists of a combination of primary and secondary data used to produce the desired results (Rose and Johnson, 2020). The goal of this procedure is to ensure that the data is accurate and free of bias.
Population and Sample
The research aims at seeking data from the tourism sector in Mecca to understand the impact of the pandemic on the industry. The target population for this Study includes the professionals dealing with tourism in Saudi Arabia, Islamic pilgrims across the globe, and local traders in Mecca. The questionnaire will also target the native Muslims in various parts and ask a closed-ended question about whether they had any plans to visit Mecca in the year 2020. This technique will give the number of religious tourists who wanted to visit Mecca but were barred by the COVID-19 restrictions. The questionnaire will also target the people living near Mecca and find out how the COVID-19 pandemic affected their earnings emanating from religious pilgrims visiting Mecca.
The Study will employ a random sampling technique when selecting questionnaire respondents who include traders in the city of Mecca. In addition, a purposive sampling technique will be used when determining the respondents within the ministry of tourism who will be providing critical data on how the pandemic has impacted religious tourism in the nation. The method allows the researcher to choose a specific sample through a personal judgment on the respondents’ knowledge about the study topic and the study’s objectives (Campbell et al., 2020). On the online platform, the study will rely on random sampling to select the research respondents. The forum will target participants who do not live in Saudi Arabia to grasp tourists who visit Mecca for the Islamic pilgrimage.
Research Questions
The research questions for the Study include:
- Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect visit to Mecca for the pilgrimage?
- How did the business performance in terms of earnings in the year ending 2020?
- How did the religious tourism sector perform in terms of revenue generated in the year ending 2020?
These questions will be asked to government officials within the ministry tourism, local traders in Mecca, and Muslims across the globe, except those in Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire is expected to be understandable to the target population to ensure that the exact impact of COVID-19 on visitation of Mecca is quantitatively covered.
Pilot Study
Ethical Issues
The Study is expected to adhere to ethical standards developed to guide the research. The research will ensure that the information obtained from the respondents is kept confidential. The report shall be released under the consent of the respondent (Bunnik et al., 2020). The Study has also been analyzed to ensure that it does not harm the respondents while also paying attention to the respect of privacy and anonymity.
Budget.
This budget of the research proposal consists of the following and their estimated cost.
Timeline for Completion of the Project.
Conclusion
Religious tourism has greatly influenced Saudi Arabia to the extent the Saudi government has developed a ministry specially dedicated to the Umrah and Hajj. However, due to the spread of Covid -19, religious tourism is likely to experience a down surge. The prohibition on mass gatherings is expected to reduce the number of religious tourists visiting the region. Businesses who thrive during the Hajj and Imrah are likely to experience reduced earing while revenue streams from religious tourism are likely to decline (Parveen, 2020). The process of sourcing data from a government official is associated with heightened bureaucracy, which might delay the progress of the research. However, the research findings will be essential in determining how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected local businesses, the economy, and the Islamic pilgrimage.
Reference List
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