Drivers of Religious Tourism in Nigeria: Spiritual and Secular Reasons

Religious activities have been engaged by humans since time immemorial. People have moved from one location to the other to offer sacrifices and engage in ritual activities around sacred objects and spiritual beings. Travelling to religious destinations with an inclination towards tourism is essentially a form of niche tourism. This study investigated the drivers of religious tourism in Nigeria from the prism of spiritual and mundane reasons. Data were retrieved via key informant interviews conducted at Osun-Osogbo Groove and Olokun Temple in southwest Nigeria. The findings revealed that the religious beliefs of most tourists who visit the Osun Grove and Olokun Temple are associated with Islam or Christianity, thus, they consider active participation in the pure religious activities and rituals of these destinations to be unnecessary. Therefore, spirituality is not largely the driver of religious tourism in these destinations but mundane or secular reasons, like knowledge inquisition, and cultural enquiry, which is at variance with the major driver of religious tourism to sites such as Jerusalem and Mecca.