Visitor Behaviour and Economic Valuation of Spiritual Tourism in Rameshwaram Island, India
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Authors
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Jeyashree Arumugam
SRM college of Agricultural Sciences
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Sathaiah Manimuthu
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7254-5806
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Periasami Nagappan
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7351-1560
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Rajasekaran Ramakrishnan
https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8743-7097
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Arjunvishwak Prabhakar Sriram
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-2377-8528
Keywords:
Tourism, visitor Behaviour, ExtensionAbstract
The study evaluated visitor behaviour and the economic importance of spiritual tourism in Rameshwaram Island during 2025 using the Individual Travel Cost Method (ITCM). Primary information was obtained from 400 spiritual tourists through a field survey conducted at important pilgrimage centres in the study area. Tourism demand and visitation patterns were estimated using Poisson and Negative Binomial regression approaches. The Negative Binomial specification was found to be more suitable for explaining tourist visitation behaviour. Travel expenditure showed an inverse relationship with visitation frequency, indicating that higher travel costs reduced repeat visits. In contrast, visitor satisfaction positively influenced tourism participation and revisit intention, while income showed a favourable association with tourism demand. The estimated consumer surplus was Rs. 20,833 per trip, reflecting substantial welfare gains derived from spiritual tourism. The findings also indicated that spiritual tourism contributed notably to the regional economy through tourism expenditure and service-related activities. The study emphasised the need for effective tourism planning, visitor awareness programmes, infrastructure improvement and extension support for promoting sustainable spiritual tourism development in Rameshwaram Island.
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The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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