Exploring faith-based tourism products in selected sacred spaces of south-western Nigeria

Abstract

Travel for religious-related purposes - faith-based tourism is gradually becoming a renowned form of tourism. Experiencing this type of tourism has turned sacred spaces into tourist destination where visitors participate in different faith-based tourism products or activities. These are dynamic ritual performances wherein the powers of spiritual entities are invoked and utilized by man. The results of the study revealed that the efficacy of the faith-based tourism activities attracts huge tourist traffic to sacred spaces. The huge tourist traffic overcrowded the sacred spaces consequently causing heavy traffic congestion along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, increase in crime rate, depletion of heritage resources and insufficient accommodation. To address the above issues, this paper employed ethnographic research to investigate the challenging factors of faith-based tourism products of three sacred spaces (Redemption Camp, Osun Osogbo Sacred grove and NASFAT camp) in south western Nigeria. The study identified the challenges militating against the utilization of faith-based tourism products in promoting sacred spaces as tourism destination. The findings concluded that the major challenge is overcrowding but with improved infrastructures and instructions other issues militating against the growth of faith-based tourism can be managed to maximize the benefits therein.