Religious Tourism in Batangas, Philippines

This study assessed religious tourism in Batangas, Philippines on the following aspects: historical significance, holiness and spirituality, and customs and traditions. The assessments made were also subjected to tests of differences when the respondents are grouped as to either residents or tourists and according to their age, sex, educational attainment and employment. Results show that both tourists and residents generally concurred on all religious tourism indicators presented to them for assessment, although there were also few indicators that had lower mean assessments than the others. While the differences on the assessments made by the different groups of respondents were not statistically significant, the slight differences are still noticeable. In particular, residents had somewhat more favourable assessment than the tourists, older respondents more than the younger, males more than the females, those with higher education more than those with lower education, and government employees more than those who are not in government service. These slight but still noticeable differences, together with religious tourism indicators having lower mean assessments than the others, can serve as bases for making proposals on how to further enrich the religious tourism in Batangas.

Keywords – cultural heritage tourism, customs and traditions, historical significance, holiness and spirituality, religious tourism