{"title":"Temple keepers in religious tourism development: a case in Macao","authors":"Tuan Phong Ly, Xiuchang Tan","doi":"10.1080/1743873X.2022.2134019","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Temples are important religious sites within Chinese societies. While there is a considerable body of work on the development of religious tourism and the monastic community, little research has been conducted on the temple keeper community in Chinese folk-religion temples. Temple keepers are those who take care of daily temple operations and offer related secular services and cultural events to pilgrims and visitors. Meanwhile, they also have direct contact, communication, and interaction with visitors. It is argued that the temple keeper community plays important roles in religious tourism development. Macao, with a large number of folk temples of rich heritage value, has been chosen as the case context. Adopting qualitative research methods, this paper explores temple keepers’ services and roles in Macao’s temple site management and visitor experience. The study identified that temple keepers have four roles, which are temple attendant, temple representative, cultural knowledge broker, and destination ambassador. Suggestions are given for temple management and local government for adaptive strategies in cultural site management and to enrich the visitor experience in the destination.","PeriodicalId":47192,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Heritage Tourism","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Heritage Tourism","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2022.2134019","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT Temples are important religious sites within Chinese societies. While there is a considerable body of work on the development of religious tourism and the monastic community, little research has been conducted on the temple keeper community in Chinese folk-religion temples. Temple keepers are those who take care of daily temple operations and offer related secular services and cultural events to pilgrims and visitors. Meanwhile, they also have direct contact, communication, and interaction with visitors. It is argued that the temple keeper community plays important roles in religious tourism development. Macao, with a large number of folk temples of rich heritage value, has been chosen as the case context. Adopting qualitative research methods, this paper explores temple keepers’ services and roles in Macao’s temple site management and visitor experience. The study identified that temple keepers have four roles, which are temple attendant, temple representative, cultural knowledge broker, and destination ambassador. Suggestions are given for temple management and local government for adaptive strategies in cultural site management and to enrich the visitor experience in the destination.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Heritage Tourism ( JHT ) is a peer-reviewed, international transdisciplinary journal. JHT focuses on exploring the many facets of one of the most notable and widespread types of tourism. Heritage tourism is among the very oldest forms of travel. Activities such as visits to sites of historical importance, including built environments and urban areas, rural and agricultural landscapes, natural regions, locations where historic events occurred and places where interesting and significant living cultures dominate are all forms of heritage tourism. As such, this form of tourism dominates the industry in many parts of the world and involves millions of people. During the past 20 years, the study of tourism has become highly fragmented and specialised into various theme areas, or concentrations. Within this context, heritage tourism is one of the most commonly investigated forms of tourism, and hundreds of scholars and industry workers are involved in researching its dynamics and concepts. This academic attention has resulted in the publication of hundreds of refereed articles in various scholarly media, yet, until now there has been no journal devoted specifically to heritage tourism; Journal of Heritage Tourism was launched to fill this gap. JHT seeks to critically examine all aspects of heritage tourism. Some of the topics to be explored within the context of heritage tourism will include colonial heritage, commodification, interpretation, urban renewal, religious tourism, genealogy, patriotism, nostalgia, folklore, power, funding, contested heritage, historic sites, identity, industrial heritage, marketing, conservation, ethnicity, education and indigenous heritage.