A Study on Religious Tourism of Foguangshan in Taiwan

Abstract

Fo Guang Shan is a famous sacred place of Buddhism in Taiwan. The major travel motivation of tourists visiting there is to ”enliven one's life” and ”entrust the spirit on religion.” Because the religious tourism has the dual purpose of leisure and religion, the leisure environment and the experience of feeling are important to the tourists. The tourists, satisfied with the experience of religion and leisure, develop their loyalty to Fo Guang Shan. Besides, the tourists are tempted to recommend relatives and friends to go to Fo Guang Shan for religious travel. In order to understand the influence of tourist motivation on satisfaction and loyalty to the visiting site, the tourists were classified into four groups according to travel motivation, which include ”high entrust of the spirit on religion”, ”high enlivenment of one's life by leisure”, ”mediation of travel motivation”, and ”low travel motivation.” The result obtained showed that satisfaction and loyalty of the tourists are positively affected by the higher travel motivation of religion .