Exploring Religious Tourist Experiences in Bethlehem: The Intersection of Abrahamic Religions

Religious tourism is one of the oldest forms of tourism and represents an important aspect of the travel and tourism industry. Religious authorities should understand the tourists' behavior in order to be able to post the tourist card and the meeting attended by tourists. The absence of work on tourism for religious purposes and the perceptions of religious visitors, and taking into consideration the value of religious tourism, this thesis objects to scan visitors from the three Abrahamic faiths, Jews, Christians and Muslims, and their impressions in Bethlehem through means of a survey. Bethlehem was chosen for its unique religious importance and was recognized by the three Abrahamic religions. In addition to the great historical significance of this religiously unique city, which combines the three largest religions in the world, it is a meeting point and a global gathering of religious tourists. Using a comfort nonprobability sampling method, which is a suitable method when the opportunities to be able to instrument a haphazard sampling technique accurately represent the small population (Han, Meng, and Kim, 2017; Song, Lee, Kang, & Boo, 2012). One (print) method was used for distributing questionnaires to the study group. Thus, to meet the target sample of tourists for religious purposes from three faith denominations also from a number of countries, scientist, along with a paying MBA student, visited several famous tourist restaurants and hotels in the ancient city of Bethlehem and invited tourists to engage voluntarily in the Academic Survey on Religious Tourism in Bethlehem.