The Relationship between Happiness and Hope and Spiritual Health among Religious Tourists

Religion and spirituality are the most common motivations for travel. Travelers with religious traditions are attracted to pilgrimage especially because of the need for self-knowledge and inner confidence. They look for emotional reawakening, physical and mental well-being, the realization of self-knowledge, and long life and health. Religious tourism is a multifaceted phenomenon that is created with a set of motivations. One of the most important motivations is health, and since happiness and hope have always been one of the concerns of human beings, and considering everyday problems, it can be effective in maintaining health. The present study aims to investigate the relationship between happiness and hope and spiritual health among religious tourists.

The present study is descriptive survey-based and cross-sectional in terms of the time criterion seeks to describe and identify the relationship and correlation between happiness, hope, and spiritual health among religious tourists. The statistical population of the study included all the tourists (men and women) participating in the Arbaeen Walk in the years 2019-2020 being in the age range of 18-65, who, at the time of data collection, were in Shiraz. Due to the fact that there was no exact statistics related to the participants in the Arbaeen Walk, 384 people were selected based on Morgan’s table with an error rate of 5% in the statistical population of 500,000 and above. In the present study, all ethical considerations were observed and the authors reported no conflict of interests.

The findings pointed to a significant relationship between the age and the level of the spiritual health of the respondents, and there was a significant difference between the marital status and the level of spiritual health. In addition, there was a significant relationship between the participating tourists’ happiness and spiritual health and hope and their spiritual health at the 99% confidence level.

Considering the fact that the Arbaeen Walk provides the ground for increasing the level of spiritual health, it is possible to develop plans to increase the level of happiness and hope among women and men of different ages during this event.