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Indonesian Muslim spiritual tourists. The three motivation factors for Indonesian Muslim spiritual tourists were: firstly, the strength of the Islamic belief of the in the
individual tourist, secondly, the urge for Islamic spiritual learning and education from the trip, and thirdly, the personal inspiration to travel to Islamic places and events
Budiman Haq, 2012. The research conducted in the current paper gets its inspiration and directions from the paper from Budiman and Haq 2012, and tries to
present a conceptual framework regarding the external and uncontrollable factors that influence the travel decisions of Indonesian Muslim spiritual tourists.
3. Issues related to Indonesian Islamic Spiritual Tourism
The significance of research on tourism started 30 years ago when tourism researchers have explored tourists
’ motivation in destination choice, mode of travel, expectations, information source and the effect of socio-demographic characteristics on motivation.
Pilgrimage and religious tourism have a religious dogma motivation, though people also travel to religious destinations for other motives, such as education, knowledge and
awareness Haq Jackson, 2009. Destinations linked to Islamic spiritual tourism are not only the religious
places, but they include Islamic events and gatherings where people feel more spiritually fulfilled Haq Wong, 2010. The review of the literature on Muslim spiritual
tourism categorises spiritual tourism as a pilgrimage and a religious practice depending upon the intention of the tourist.
Earlier research has identified many factors that help to indicate the motivation of tourists to select a place or an event with different motives and intentions. The ground breaking
and one of the first studies on tourists ’ behaviour, Moutinho 1987 presented a
workable model to study consumer behaviour of tourists, which concluded with external and personal factors that influence tourism behaviour. The external factors included
culture, social class, reference groups and family roles Moutinho, 1987, p.6. The personal factors included personality, learning, motivation, perception and attitudes
Moutinho, 1987, p.6. Moutinho 1987 examined different aspects of tourists
’ behaviour and attitudes, his findings were used by many other tourism researchers.
Haq and Jackson 2006 used Moutinho ’s model to study the external factors that could
be used in spiritual tourism segmentation. Based on an exploratory study conducted on spiritual tourists in Australia, Pakistan and the UK, Haq and Jackson 2006
presented three external factors that were significant in segmenting spiritual tourism, they were: culture, social class and reference groups including families.
The current tourism literature stresses upon the buying decisions of tourists and pilgrims, but limited studies have specifically explored the Islamic spiritual tourists
’ buying decisions. Pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam and consists of Hajj and
Umrah, as discussed earlier. A quick study of the Holy Quran would indicate several instructions to the believers to travel around God
’s earth to see His Blessings and adversities that will help to strengthen the faith. The Prophet of Islam also gave explicit
instructions regarding leisure and travels; for example, ‘most of the people do not
know how to use two of the bounties: their health and their spare time ’ Vukonic’
1996, p.3, seek knowledge even if you have to travel to China, ‘travel, thus you will
be healthy and enabled for everyday experience ’ Vukonic’ 1996, p.41.
Recently, many scholars have expressed their understanding of the philosophy of Hajj and Umrah, their connection to the original message of the Islamic faith, their
political and social dimensions and personal expectations and observations from spiritual tourism to Makkah. After investigating the external factors influencing
spiritual tourism segmentation, Haq and Jackson 2009 studied the behavioural aspect
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of Muslim spiritual tourists going for Hajj on a sample focussed on Australian and Pakistani Muslims. Based on the study Haq and Jackson 2009 delivered the themes of
philosophy of Hajj linked with the core belief, the inspiration associated with local culture and links to Islam, and the social status and the financial costs involved in travel
decisions.
FINDINGS
The literature survey discussed in the preceding sections have discussed the critical factors that help a tourist, a spiritual tourist, or a Muslim spiritual tourist. The findings
of this paper are based on the literature review and both authors ’ research experience and
observations of Islamic spiritual tourism in Indonesia, identify the uncontrollable and external factors affecting the relevant decisions of Indonesian Islamic spiritual
tourists.
The primary uncontrollable factor recognised in this study is the risk of health issues for Indonesian Muslim spiritual tourists. Since all gatherings of Islamic
Spiritual Tourism in Mecca for Hajj or Umrah witness millions of attendees, regardless of proper management, health risks are eminent Haworth, Barasheed,
Memish, Rashid, Booy, 2013. Various outbreaks of diseases have been dedected and then avoided during Hajj and Unrah for the last
40 years, influenza being the most common among them Haworth et al., 2013. A recent
virus affecting a lot of Muslim spiritual tourists in Mecca is the MERS Middle East respiratory syndrome that has threatened the whole travel practice de Groot, Baker,
Baric, Brown, Drosten, Enjuanes, Ziebuhr, 2013. Regualr testing for MERS before and on arrival are being recommended by medical experts that is creating inconvenience
for traveleers to the Holy cities Assiri, McGeer, Perl, Price, Al Rabeeah, Cummings, Memish, 2013.
Indonesian Muslims are similar to all other Muslims and common tourists from all other countries. Hence, naturally they have high concerns for health issues regarding
their Hajj and Umrah trips. Where Islam stresses upon travelling to strengthen the belief and Hajj is a compulsion under various conditions, at the same time health issues are
considered serious and Muslims are exempted from Hajj compulsion. Indonesian authorities need to have a regular study of the health issues and produce an annual
report for precautionary steps or medical procedures to avoid any health problems during Hajj or Umrah.
The second uncontrollable factor affecting Indonesian Muslims for spiritual tourism is the global threat of terrorism. Raza and Jawaid 2013 presented various
terrorism issues and threats that are damaging Muslim economies and tourism. The threat of terrorism is not new for Muslim spiritual tourists but it has intensified after the
America
’s war on terror Zamani- Farahani Henderson, 2010; Al-Hamarneh Steiner, 2004. Even the terror attacks in Indonesia, especially the Bali attacks of 2002; created a
havoc among Indonesians and at least gave them a reason to think again before embarking on Islamic spiritual tourism. The recent events in Middle East: the civil wars
in Iraq and Syria and the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Gaza by Israel has created grief among Muslims that leads to unpleasant events. Moreover, even in the region that
Indonesia belongs to, the ongoing genocide of Muslims in Burma and Sri Lanka cannot be ignored as crucial events that could instigate more terrorist activities.
