Thesis Presentation: Samreet Kaur

The Master of Arts in Sustainable Leisure Management, in conjunction with our World Leisure Centre of Excellence is pleased to introduce Samreet Kaur, Graduate Student in progress, who will be presenting her research and thesis.

Religious tourism is a promising type of tourism for income generation for local communities and to preserve the cultural heritage, but still, it is considered as one of the least explored types of tourism in Punjab despite its vast resources and opportunities. At the same time, numerous studies examined how religious tourism impacts on destinations and how residents view tourism in the context of Hinduism, Jainism, Islam, and Buddhism pilgrimage. There is a paucity of studies looking specifically at how religious tourism and tourists affect residents living in “holy or sacred” destinations in the context of the Sikh pilgrimage. 

The purpose of this research is to investigate in greater depth the impacts of religious tourism around the Golden Temple, with the help of secondary data. The findings of the study revealed that most local people are welcome religious tourists to the Amritsar and perceive the economic and socio-cultural impacts as positive. On the other hand, they are worried about the environmental impacts because they are facing some problems such as overcrowding, congestion, and pollution in Amritsar. Furthermore, the study found that few agencies were working in Amritsar to reduce environmental impacts. Overall, there is strong evidence that economic considerations override other concerns by locals. The paper suggests management and development strategies to make a balance in different impacts to achieve sustainable development of Religious tourism in Amritsar.

Supervisor: John Predyk - VIU

Co-supervisor: Dr. Kiran Shinde - Latrobe University, Australia

External Examiner: Dr. Lorie Tuma - Grand Valley State University, USA

Date: Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Presentation: 3 - 5 pm (PDT)

Zoom Video Conference by invitation