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Topic · Geography, Planning and Development

Religious Tourism and Spaces

Religious Tourism and Spaces is a research topic within Geography, Planning and Development. Science Explorer counts 19k research works in it since 1950. 10.5% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the changing geographies of religion in modernity, focusing on topics such as religious tourism, pilgrimage, sacred spaces, secularism, spiritual tourism, postsecular geographies, cultural geography, religious identity, tourist motivations, and spatial theory.

  • Religious Tourism
  • Pilgrimage
  • Sacred Spaces
  • Secularism
  • Spiritual Tourism
  • Postsecular Geographies
  • Cultural Geography
  • Religious Identity
  • Tourist Motivations
  • Spatial Theory
Research works
19k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.5%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-1%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
22% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Religious Tourism and Spaces

Which countries lead Religious Tourism and Spaces research?

By volume, the United States and Indonesia publish the most (551 and 421 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 551 works
  2. 2 Indonesia 421 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 321 works
  4. 4 India 286 works
  5. 5 China 209 works
  6. 6 Spain 200 works
  7. 7 France 163 works
  8. 8 Brazil 143 works
  9. 9 Italy 123 works
  10. 10 Germany 118 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 21.7%Indonesia: 16.6%United Kingdom: 12.6%India: 11.3%6 others listed: 37.8%22%largest
United States551 · 21.7%Indonesia421 · 16.6%United Kingdom321 · 12.6%India286 · 11.3%6 others listed958 · 37.8%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Religious Tourism and Spaces research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Religious Tourism and Spaces research, followed by Russian Academy of Sciences and Film Independent.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 44 works
  2. 2 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 18 works
  3. 3 Film IndependentUnited States 16 works
  4. 4 Universiti Teknologi MARAMalaysia 15 works
  5. 5 Jagiellonian UniversityPoland 14 works
  6. 6 University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 14 works
  7. 7 Institut Agama Islam Negeri BengkuluIndonesia 13 works
  8. 8 Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 13 works
  9. 9 University of CoimbraPortugal 13 works
  10. 10 Universidade de Santiago de CompostelaSpain 12 works

Who are the leading researchers in Religious Tourism and Spaces?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Religious Tourism and Spaces include George Davey Smith, Herbert A. Simon and Wolfgang Köenig.

  1. 1 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  2. 2 Herbert A. Simon United States 179k citations
  3. 3 Wolfgang Köenig Germany 134k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Religious Tourism and Spaces?

The most cited paper in Religious Tourism and Spaces is "Marketing the competitive destination of the future" (Dimitrios Buhalis, 2000), with 3,412 citations. Next come "Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice" (3,370) and "Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience" (3,261).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Marketing the competitive destination of the future Dimitrios Buhalis · Tourism Management Feb 2000 3,412
2 Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice James V. Spickard, Catherine Bell · Sociology of Religion 1993 3,370
3 Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience Ning Wang · Annals of Tourism Research Apr 1999 3,261
4 Authenticity and commoditization in tourism Erik Cohen · Annals of Tourism Research 1988 2,700
5 Routes: Travel and Translation In the Late Twentieth Century Richard Handler · American Ethnologist Feb 1998 2,330
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Religious Tourism and Spaces research done?

The largest centres of Religious Tourism and Spaces research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), Paris (France), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Madrid (Spain).

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 55 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 52 works
  3. 3 JakartaIndonesia 50 works
  4. 4 MadridSpain 50 works
  5. 5 BandungIndonesia 46 works
  6. 6 LisbonPortugal 44 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 33 works
  8. 8 YogyakartaIndonesia 30 works
  9. 9 BudapestHungary 30 works
  10. 10 KrakowPoland 29 works
See Religious Tourism and Spaces on the map

Where is the best place to study Religious Tourism and Spaces?

Among universities, judged by research, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Universiti Sains Malaysia and Hong Kong Polytechnic University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 16.49%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…Universiti Sains Mal…College of TourismUniversiti Teknologi…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Universiti Teknologi MARAMalaysia 62.213.5%5.2×15 +47.7%
2Universiti Sains MalaysiaMalaysia 58.036.8%3.7×9 +45.5%
3Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 56.547.3%2.5×8 -8.2%
4College of TourismBulgaria 55.819.2%73.8×11 +196.7%
5Jagiellonian UniversityPoland 50.34.1%5.7×14 +68.9%
6University of OxfordUnited Kingdom 47.011.6%2.6×14 -5.2%
7Universidad Complutense de MadridSpain 41.62.4%3.8×13 +43.0%
8Institut Agama Islam Negeri BengkuluIndonesia 40.15.6%2.5×13 +348.7%
9Universidade de Santiago de CompostelaSpain 39.52.2%10.4×12 -21.4%
10Arizona State UniversityUnited States 37.522.2%3.7×9 -7.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Religious Tourism and Spaces, country by country

Is Religious Tourism and Spaces research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 1% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2020.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Religious Tourism and Spaces as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.020% in 2024.

still counting0.010%0.020%0.030%Religious Tourism and Spaces0.017% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Religious Tourism and Spaces over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Religious Tourism and Spaces10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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