Motivations for participating in religious events

Analysis of the perspectives of World Youth Day attendees

Resumo

Religious events have become one of the fastest-growing forms of religious tourism and have also become important tourism resources for destinations. Despite this, few studies have explored the motivations that drive people to participate in this type of celebration. This study aims to identify the motivational factors that encourage individuals to participate in religious events. World Youth Day (WYD) was selected as the context for the study. A total of 191 WYD registrants responded to a face-to-face survey. The results obtained indicate that people participate in religious events mainly driven by religious motives and by the interest of achieving greater spiritual growth. The results also indicate that motivations differ according to socio-demographic variables such as gender, age, and occupation.