Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research

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Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain:

The Case from China

Wanfei Wang, Joseph S. Chen & Keji Huang

To cite this article: Wanfei Wang, Joseph S. Chen & Keji Huang (2015): Religious Tourist
Motivation in Buddhist Mountain: The Case from China, Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism
Research, DOI: 10.1080/10941665.2015.1016443

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2015.1016443

Published online: 09 Mar 2015.

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 Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2015.1016443

Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain:

The Case from China

Wanfei Wang1, Joseph S. Chen2 and Keji Huang3*

1
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Department of Tourism Management, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s

Republic of China
2
Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
3
Department of Business Administration, Hangzhou College of Commerce, Hangzhou,
Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

This study aims to develop a measurement scale assessing motivations of tourists traveling to
religious sites within the Chinese context. Deploying quantitative methods in relation to
Putuo Buddhist Mountain – one of the most visited Buddhist destinations in China, this
study depicts 20 motivation attributes. Accordingly, the scale dimensionality of tourist
motivation in the context of religious tourism is first revealed by an exploratory factor analy-
sis and further validated by a confirmatory factor analysis. Consequently, three resultant
constructs entailing religious belief, cultural enjoyment, and mental relaxation exhibit accep-
table levels of reliability. Construct validity, including discriminant and convergent validity,
is satisfactorily established. Furthermore, this study examines how tourists’ past experience
and degree of religious belief affect the derived constructs that define the motivations of reli-
gious tourist. The results suggest that past experience significantly affects tourists’ motiv-
ation to achieve religious beliefs, while degree of tourist religious belief has a great impact
on both their motivation to achieve religious beliefs and mental relaxation. Finally, accord-
ing to motivation theory, religious beliefs and mental relaxation can be classified as push
factors, while cultural enjoyment and one item belonging to religious beliefs are pull factors.

Key words: religious tourism, tourist motivation, tourist experience, degree of religious
belief

Introduction through generating meaning in life (Fletcher,

2004). This spiritual meaning not only helps
Religious tourism affects both individual and people know themselves better (Vorzsak &
social life (Homayouni, 2011; Ruggia, 2012) Gut, 2009), but also helps them achieve

*Email: keji.huang@my.jcu.edu.au

© 2015 Asia Pacific Tourism Association

 2 Wanfei Wang et al.
mental health (Bergin, 1983). In ancient China,
emperors, scholars, businessmen and later
ordinary citizens traveled around the country
learning about Buddhism. These activities pro-
moted traditional form of religious tourism.
Unfortunately, Buddhism suffered seriously
from the Chinese Cultural Revolution. This
revolution, lasting for about 10 years
from1966 to 1976, was engineered by the
Maoist state to confirm its own authority
(Gao, 1994; Li, 2010; Wong, Ryan, & McIn-
tosh, 2013). During this period, a large
number of temples and works of art were
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ravaged, while monks and nuns were forced
to return to secular life (Wong et al., 2013).
However, Buddhism is now resurgent follow-
ing implementation of the Reform and
Opening-up Policy. As a result, religious
tourism is reviving because of a combination
of economic, cultural, and political, as well as
religious, reasons. Chinese State statistics
show that 47.9% of National 5A Tourist
Attractions are closely related to religion
(Zhang & Sun, 2008).
Thus, religious tourism is flourishing today.
According to an online report (Askin, 2012),
the annual global market in religious tourism
is worth almost US$20 billion. There are
around 16.3 million faith-based tourists
embarking on religious journeys each year
(Ruggia, 2012). More impressively, the
number of religious tourists has grown by
about 5% since 2007 (Ruggia, 2012), despite
difficult economic conditions. These findings
suggest that religious tourism is likely to see
solid growth worldwide.
People traveling to religious sites are motiv-
ated by various kinds of reasons. While some
people desire to escape from their everyday
life (Cohen, 1979), others are attracted by
sacred places based on their religious belief.
A few researchers have developed instruments
to measure religious tourists’ motivations
(Andriotis, 2009; Li & Wu, 2010; Rinschede,
1992; Shuo, Ryan, & Liu, 2009; Wong et al.,
2013). However, despite these studies contri-
buting to the body of knowledge on religious
motivations, the validity of their scales has
not been tested by confirmatory factor analysis
(CFA). Needless to say, the lack of a valid
instrument to measure participants’ motiv-
ation in light of the dual motivations of
leisure and religious tourists will undermine
the effectiveness of business operations and
potentially disfranchise guests. Furthermore,
to some degree commercialization of religious
sites in China driven by economic growth
potentially has influence on tourist behavior
(Wong et al., 2013). Therefore, whether
tourist motivations have been affected by the
emerging commercial activities at religious
sites should be further studied. In other
words, this study will extract unique motiv-
ations of Buddhism in China which would be
differentiated from other motivation studies.
To fill the above mentioned knowledge gap,
the main objective of this study is to develop
a valid scale to measure the motivations of reli-
gious tourists within the Chinese context. This
study will further examine whether the degree
of religious belief and past experience have
impact on underlying constructs that define
the motivations of religious tourists. Finally,
the study will clarify the push-and-pull
factors that encourage tourists to visit religious
sites based on motivation theory.
Four research questions are proposed to
accomplish the corresponding objectives.
First, What are the underlying constructs that
define the motivations of religious tourists?
Second, Does the proposed measurement
scale have acceptable levels of reliability and
construct validity? Third, Do past experience
and the degree of religious belief affect the
underlying constructs that define the motiv-
ations of religious tourists? Fourth, What are
 Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain
the push-and-pull factors that motivate tourists
visit religious sites? The results of this study
will provide planners, policy-makers, and rel-
evant agencies with a valid instrument to facili-
tate the development of religious tourism.
Meanwhile, by analyzing the role of religious
tourists’ past experience and degree of religious
belief, local community can cater for the need
of both pilgrims and secular tourists effectively
and efficiently. Furthermore, by clarifying the
push-and-pull factors, local community will
be able to improve target elements in order to
increase tourist motivations. To better under-
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stand the background of religious tourism
and tourist motivations, relevant literature
will be reviewed.
Literature Review
Religious Tourism
Religious tourism is widely spread across the
world (Rinschede, 1992). Religion and
tourism are highly connected with each other
(Stausberg, 2011), since the latter motivates
the travel and is the source of traditional
culture and faith that attracts diverse visitors
(Henderson, 2011). Basically, there are two
schools of thought: the first suggests that
tourism is opposed to pilgrimage. This view
has been promoted by Smith (1992), and later
followed by Collins-Kreiner and Kliot (2000),
Fleischer (2000) and della Dora (2012). The
alternative view suggests that pilgrimage is a
type of tourism. This view is presented by
Timothy and Olsen (2006) and by Ron (2009).
Religious tourism has significantly inter-
acted with holiday and cultural tourism,
social and group tourism, as well as economic
and political aspects (Rinschede, 1992). The
effects of religious tourism on economic devel-
opment (Dasgupta, Mondal, & Basu, 2006),
3
social culture (Joseph & Kavoori, 2001;
Williams & Stewart, 1998), the ecosystem
(Shinde, 2007), and perceived value to local
residents (Terzidou, Stylidis, & Szivas, 2008;
Uriely, Israeli, & Reichel, 2003) have received
much attention. Meanwhile, scholars have
proposed models to improve the sustainable
development of religious tourism (Brunet,
Bauer, Delacy, & Tshering, 2001).
Similarly, Chinese scholars have also studied
religious tourism for several decades. Qin
(1998) suggests that religious tourism is
helpful for social stabilization, psychological
adjustment compensation, cultivation of an
ethical code, and group integration. In earlier
studies, scholars define the concept and
content of religious tourism (Huang, 1992;
Ma, 1997). Then, more studies try to provide
different sustainable models to develop reli-
gious products (Shen, 2005; Zhang, 2002).
Among these models, culture is considered
one essential factor of religious products. Reli-
gious culture has great impacts on tourists’
feelings and behaviors (Bao & Chen, 1996;
Kong, 2005). The sustainable development of
religious tourism attends to pay more attention
to the ethical and social functions of religious
culture. In addition, protection of the ecologi-
cal environment has been identified as contri-
buting to the sustainability of religious
tourism as well (Fang, 2001; Wang, 2003).
Motivations for Religious Tourism
Except for research on religious tourism from a
macro perspective, many scholars have exam-
ined the differences in ideology between tourists
and pilgrims. Since religious tourists have
different needs to other kinds of tourists, they
are first divided into two polarized categories:
pilgrim and secular tourist (Adler, 1989).
While the former is exclusively or dominantly
 4 Wanfei Wang et al.
motivated by religious reasons, the latter
prefers to participate in conferences, festivals,
and rituals at sacred sites (Rinschede, 1992).
However, there are many possible combi-
nations of sacred-secular motivations between
pilgrim and secular tourist (Smith, 1992).
Therefore, Smith (1992) develops a Pilgrim-
Tourist Path to interpret the multi-motivational
mix of tourist aspirations (Pearce, 1996).
According to previous studies (Askin, 2012;
Cohen, 1979; Collins-Kreiner, 2010a, 2010b;
Jackson & Hudman, 1995; MacCannell,
1976; Rinschede, 1992; Shuo et al., 2009;
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Turner & Ash, 1975; Wong et al., 2013), the
main motivations of religious tourists are to
deepen their religious faith, explore the historic
roots of their religion on a faith-based
vacation, experience a unique culture, visit
the world’s inspiring destinations, and simply
have fun on their journey. Therefore, generally
the motivation dimensions of religious tourists
can be divided into two categories: (1) push
factors such as faith-seeking, self-development,
relaxation and escape from everyday life and
(2) pull factors such as cultural and religious
environments, sacred temples or statues, and
accessibility. These push-and-pull factors are
often regarded as internal (intrinsic) and exter-
nal (extrinsic) motivations, respectively (Dann,
1981). This push-and-pull motivation frame-
work has often been used as the theoretical
underpinning to guide empirical examinations
of tourist motivation.
On the one hand, religious tourists are
driven by their internal motivations. Religious
pursuit is one of the most important factors
motivating tourists’ visits to holy places
(Rinschede, 1992). For instance, Shinde
(2011) indicates that the belief in Krishna, a
wish-fulfilling god, is tourists’ primary motiv-
ation for visiting temples. Yet some religious
tourists just seek to experience different
lives and societies (Turner & Ash, 1975).
MacCannell (1976) claims that the shallow-
ness of people’s daily lives and inauthenticity
of their everyday experiences engender a
desire for a spiritual revolution. By observing
the behavior of pilgrims at a holy center, tour-
ists may vicariously experience the authenticity
of the sacred experience (Cohen, 1979). Cohen
(1979) also points out that in the existential
mode, tourists are fully committed to an “elec-
tive” spiritual center and wish to escape from
the mainstream of their native society and
culture. In addition, the imbalance between
the physical enjoyment and mental comfort
results in the need for spiritual support
through engaging in various alternatives. For
example, those who become addicted to mysti-
cism and drugs are looking for alternative
paths as they are alienated from their own
societies (Cohen, 1979). For those seeking an
alternative spiritual center, tourism can be
highly meaningful and may become an essen-
tial way of life (Cohen, 1979). Furthermore,
many people are required to de-stress and
soothe their souls, because of the highly fierce
work competition and the pursuit of diverse
materialistic goods (Wei, 2010).
On the other hand, religious tourists are
attracted by circumstance of particular places.
Typical temples and a strong religious atmos-
phere can help tourists to find their inner
selves (Vorzsak & Gut, 2009). In this kind of
circumstance, tourists feel comfortable
without being disturbed by the complexities
of the secular world. Some of the tourists
may wish to experience the historical or cul-
tural heritage (Lankford, Dieser, & Walker,
2005). In addition, as many devout believers
congregate in holy places, happiness or
sorrow can be shared with friends from
totally different backgrounds. Moreover, tour-
ists may have an interest in the natural environ-
ment where religious temples located. These
tourists simply have fun on their journey.
 Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain
To evaluate the motivation dimensions of
religious tourists, several studies have devel-
oped measurement scales. Andriotis (2009)
reports five core experiential elements: spiri-
tual, cultural, environmental, secular, and edu-
cational by taking a phenomenological
approach. Similarly, Hyde and Harman
(2011) identify several general travel motiv-
ations including spiritual, nationalistic, family
pilgrimage, friendship, and leisure travel.
Different from the aforementioned conceptual
and qualitative analysis, Shuo et al. (2009)
take Mazu pilgrimage tourism as an example
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to examine 28 motives and weight them in
terms of their importance to seven groups.
Overall, the factors that motivate tourists to
visit holy sites are well documented and their
weight of importance is also assessed in a
quantitative way. However, none tested the
reliability and validity of their measurement
scales. For instance, Shuo et al. (2009) extract
three factors – social exploration, experience
religion, and experience belief from 28
motives, but he conducted no further tests on
the fit of the measurement scale. Therefore, it
is necessary to achieve a statistically robust
measurement model comprising various obser-
vable indicators that best explain the construct.
This study chooses the well-known Putuo
Mountain, a sacred Buddhist site, as an
example to develop a valid and reliable reli-
gious motivation measurement scale.
Methodology
Study Site
Buddhism is one of the most popular religions
in mainland China, and in recent years an
increasing number of people follow Buddhism
rather than Taoism and Confucianism (Tan,
2002; Yang, 2004). Putuo Mountain was
5
selected as the study area for the reasons in
the later text. First, Putuo Mountain is
known as one of the four most representative
Buddhist sites in mainland China. It is
thought to be the most paranormal and mys-
terious site for visiting the charitable Guanyin
Bodhisattva, who is always willing to save all
living beings. Furthermore, Putuo Mountain
is classified as a 5A National Tourism Destina-
tion by the China National Tourism Adminis-
tration (the highest classification). Finally,
since Putuo Mountain is located in the econ-
omic circle of the Yangtze River Delta, it is
easily accessible to major cities, such as Shang-
hai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Ningbo.
For the measurement scale, previous studies
(Digancea, 1992; Jackson & Hudman, 1995;
Shuo et al., 2009; Yang, 2007) have provided
some support for a factor-based structure deli-
neating the motivations of religious tourists.
To enhance its content validity, a context-
specific measurement scale was developed
based on the 28 motivations for pilgrimage in
Taiwan (Shuo et al., 2009). One researcher is
both a Taiwanese and American, who was
responsible to translate and back-translate
the measurement items between English and
Chinese. First, two items, “It’s a chance to see
Taiwan” and “Advertising is appealing”,
were deleted, because they did not fit the
context of Putuo Mountain. Then based on
in-depth interviews, seven motivation items,
“Enjoy holiday”, “Share experience with
believers”, “Because every other believer does
it”, “Fulfilling life-long purpose”, “Purchase
religious items”, “Experience the mystery of
religion”, and “It is an accomplishment for
me”, were deleted. And the survey merged
“Experience ancient architecture” and
“Experience the grandeur of the temple” into
a single item, “Experience the style of
temple”. In addition, two items, “Experience
the local customs” and “Pray for families or
 6 Wanfei Wang et al.
friends”, were added according to inter-
viewers’ advice. As a result, a final 20-item
survey was developed to measure motivations
of religious tourists at Putuo Mountain. The
questionnaire used a seven-point Likert-type
response scale, ranging from 1 = strongly dis-
agree to 7 = strongly agree, to assess each item.
At the first stage, researchers conducted in-
depth interviews with 15 tourists who visiting
Putuo Mountain in July 2011. The interviews
were analyzed to identify motivations of reli-
gious tourists and the resultant information
was incorporated into the survey questionnaire
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for use in the large-scale study. Three sections
were included in the questionnaire. The first
part aimed to explore the classification of tour-
ists’ motives. The second related to tourists’
past experience and degree of religious belief.
Finally, the third section was questions that
related to socio-demographic information on
gender, age, marriage, education, and occu-
pation. The data were collected outside main
temples, including Puji temple, Fayu temple,
and Huiji temple, at Putuo Mountain, when
tourists had a rest after praying. Convenience
sampling was used and data were collected at
both peak season (April 2012) and off-season
(December 2011) periods. The total 600
survey questionnaires were distributed to reli-
gious tourists and self-completed by respon-
dents in Mandarin. After eliminating the
missing data, 525 valid responses (87.5%)
were used for further analysis.
Of the usable questionnaires, 220 (41.9%)
were from males and 305 (58.1%) were from
females. There were more female tourists
than their male counterparts, which suggested
that women are more likely to visit religious
sites for pray and self-comfort (Shuo et al.,
2009; Wong et al., 2013). While the majority
of the respondents (61.1%) were loyal Bud-
dhist, 38.9% were non-Buddhists. In addition,
a large proportion of the respondents (63.4%)
were married. The majority of respondents
were between 25 and 50 years and only
4.0% older than 50 years. Most of the respon-
dents were well educated, with 72.7% having a
junior college degree or above. Finally, in terms
of occupation, enterprise personnel (28.2%)
and self-employed (20.0%) were the two
largest groups followed by governmental per-
sonnel (11.6%), and other groups including
young students and farmers (35.2%) (Table 1).
Data Analysis
A three-step procedure was used in this study,
following the scale development procedure of
Chen and Hsu (2001). First, as a preliminary
data analysis, Cronbach’s reliability test was
used to examine the motivational attributes
of religious tourists. Then, an exploratory
factor analysis (EFA) and a CFA were used to
measure and validate the underlying motiva-
tional constructs. Finally, the scale reliability
and validity were investigated using composite
score and average variance.
Preliminary analysis. Cronbach’s reliability
test was used to examine the data. No attribute
had a corrected item-to-total correlation below
50.0%. The overall alpha value for the set of
attributes was 83.5%, and the scale reliability
would not have been significantly improved
by deleting any of the items from the scale.
These findings suggest that the proposed scale
for measuring the motivation of religious tour-
ists is a reliable instrument with high internal
consistency (Nunnally, 1978).
Construct identification and validation. An
EFA of the 20 motivation attributes was con-
ducted using the principle component method
to detect the scale dimensionality. The unidi-
mensionality of the scale was then verified by
 Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain 7

Table 1 Socio-demographic Information

Category Item Number Percentage

Gender Male 220 41.9

Female 305 58.1
Buddhist faith Yes 321 61.1
No 204 38.9
Marriage Married 333 63.4
Single 172 32.8
Age Below 24 years 97 18.6
25–35 years 229 43.7
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36–50 years 178 33.7

Above 50 years 21 4.0
Education Primary 21 4.0
Secondary/technical 123 23.3
Junior college or university 334 63.7
Master or above 47 9.0
Occupation Enterprise personnel 148 28.2
Governmental personnel 61 11.6
Scholars 16 3.0
Self-employed 105 20.0
Retired 10 2.0
Other 185 35.2

performing a CFA. In the first procedure, to
stabilize the underlying components measuring
the motivations of religious tourists, we elimi-
nated any attribute that met one or more of
the following criteria (Hatcher, 1994): attri-
butes with a factor loading below 50.0%, attri-
butes with loadings of 50.0% or more on more
than one factor, and attributes that loaded on a
factor with an internal reliability coefficient
below 70.0%. The EFA procedure with
varimax rotation revealed three underlying
constructs that explained 62.1% of the total
variance. The constructs were labeled religious
beliefs, cultural enjoyment, and mental relax-
ation, and each construct had a satisfactory
Cronbach’s alpha of at least 70.0% (Table 2).
During the factor extraction process, 14 of
the 20 motivation attributes were retained in
the model, with each construct comprising
four to five attributes. Attributes with a factor
loading below 50.0% or attributes with load-
ings of 50.0% or more on more than one
factor should be eliminated (Hatcher, 1994).
Thus, six attributes eliminated from the EFA
procedure were curiosity, self-development,
escape from normal life, leisure sightseeing,
accompanying family or friends, and purchase
of local products. The three constructs included
religious beliefs, cultural enjoyment, and mental
relaxation. Five items (a) approach to Bud-
dhism, (b) achieve religious relief, (c) respect
for Buddhism, (d) seek help from Buddhism,
 8 Wanfei Wang et al.

and (e) pray for family and career were used to
assess religious beliefs. According to Pure Pre-
cepts, Buddhists should follow the discipline
strictly in order to become Buddhas in the
future. So for Buddhists, more attention is
paid to Bodhisattva’s responses. Cultural enjoy-
ment was assessed by five items (a) enjoy the reli-
gious art, (b) enjoy festival events, (c) enjoy the
style of temple, (d) enjoy the unique religious
culture, and (e) experience the local customs.
Some of the tourists visiting the Putuo Moun-
tain were not motivated by religious belief,
they hoped to experience the cultural authen-
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final construct was mental relaxation, including
four items (a) pursue mental peace, (b) pursue
inner happiness, (c) mental self-comfort, and
(d) experience religious atmosphere. Li, Li,
and Lin (2009) found that Buddhism had a
significant positive effect on the subjective
well-being of Buddhists. Although some of the
tourists were not loyal Buddhists, they could
also be affected by Buddhists or monks’ pious
behaviors and happy expression since the on-
site experience of tourists was greatly influenced
by others behaviors (Yagi & Pearce, 2007),
which would be helpful to improve their own

ticity at religious sites (Digancea, 1992). The spiritual satisfaction.

Table 2 EFA of the Motivations of Religious Tourists

Factor F1 F2 F3

Religious beliefs
Approach to Buddha .844 .082 .223
Achieve religious belief .806 .015 .247
Respect for Buddhism .781 .051 .280
Seek help from Buddhism .693 .152 .102
Pray for family and career .528 −.023 .450
Cultural enjoyment
Enjoy religious art .027 .881 .098
Enjoy festival events .122 .781 .031
Enjoy the style of temple .054 .780 .190
Enjoy the unique religious culture −.146 .664 .456
Enjoy the local customs .129 .624 −.045
Mental relaxation
Pursue mental peace .233 .072 .799
Mental self-comfort .365 .127 .750
Pursue inner happiness .157 .194 .732
Experience religious atmosphere .324 .044 .528
Eigenvalue 4.865 2.520 1.181
Variance explained 22.174 20.850 19.094
Reliability .834 .821 .780
Total variance explained (%) 62.119

Note: KMO = .847. Bartlett’s test: p = .000 (x2 = 3079, d.f. = 91).

Most of the religious tourists were greatly
influenced by the unique religious atmosphere
and were thus motivated by religion-related
factors. The measure of sampling adequacy
was acceptable at 84.7% (Tabachnick &
Fidell, 1989), and Bartlett’s test was significant
at the .000 level. Overall, the derived three-
factor structure appears to be congruent with
the three conceptual motivations of religious
tourists, although leisure activities were elimi-
nated. The motivation scale of religious tour-
ists seemed to be better explained by the
three constructs alone.
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A hypothetical model with three religious
tourist motivation constructs was derived from
the EFA. CFA and chi-square tests were then
conducted to validate and assess the model fit.
Three important indexes, the goodness-of-fit
index, Bentler’s comparative fit index, and
Bentler and Bonett’s normed fit index, were
examined to evaluate the model fit. If these
three indices have values greater than 90.0%,
the model can be considered a good fit. A root
mean square error of approximation value
below 10.0% also indicates the fit of the model.
The path coefficients were calculated to
assess whether any of the paths in the initial
model should be deleted. Attributes with a
non-significant p value were eliminated from
the model. Using the Wald test and the
Lagrange multiplier test, the final model was
then developed through modification pro-
cedures. In the first CFA procedure (Table 3),
Table 3 Modification Procedure for the Motivations of Religious Tourists Scale
Model x2 d.f.
Model Aa 363 74
Model Bb 252 62
a
Model A = a hypothetical model containing 14 indicators.
b
Model B = a competing model with 13 indicators after removal of the “enjoy the unique religious culture” indicator.
Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain 9
the hypothetical model, labeled Model A, had
acceptable fit indices (goodness-of-fit index =
90.9%, comparative fit index = 90.7%, and
root mean square error of approximation =
86.0%); however, its chi-square ratio (>3)
and normed fit index (88.6%) were not accep-
table (Table 3). Due to the poor fit of the
model, Model A was modified by treating the
covariance between “enjoy the unique reli-
gious culture” and mental relaxation as a free
parameter. This modification reduced the dis-
crepancy by at least 44.848. Thus, the attribute
“enjoy the unique religious culture” was
deleted from Model B to improve the model fit.
Model B showed a better model fit, with
acceptable fit indices: goodness-of-fit index
(93.0%), comparative fit index (93.2%),
normed fit index (91.2%), and root mean
square error of approximation (7.6%).
Although the chi-square ratio of the model
was still greater than 3, this value is sensitive
to the sample size, which was permissible if
the other fit indices are adequate (Hu &
Bentler, 1999) (Table 3). As a result, the final
three constructs were religious beliefs, cultural
enjoyment, and mental relaxation, each
measured by no less than four attributes.
Test of reliability and validity. Two types of
reliability – composite reliability (CR) and the
average variance extracted (AVE) by each con-
struct – were used to assess the reliability and
validity of the religious tourist motivation
x2/d.f. GFI CFI NFI RMSEA
4.903 .909 .907 .886 .086
4.066 .930 .932 .912 .076
 10 Wanfei Wang et al.

scale. The CR was acceptable, with no values
lower than 70.0% (Hatcher, 1994). Thus, the
overall reliability of the instrument can be con-
sidered satisfactory (Table 4).
Convergent and discriminant validity are
essential to the process of scale development
(DeVellis, 1991). In this study, the AVE by
each construct was higher than the acceptable
level of 50.0% (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).
Meanwhile, the p values for all indicators were
significant (Table 4), indicating that the attri-
butes measure the construct well. This suggested
that convergent validity was satisfactory. In
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.000 by Pearson correlation analysis, which
were less than square root of AVE of each
construct. This represented good discriminant
validity. Therefore, the results confirmed the
convergent validity and discriminant validity
of the final measurement model.
Results and Discussion
Past Experience and Degree of Religious
Belief

addition, all the three squared correlation coeffi- Based on the proven reliability and validity of
cients for corresponding inter-constructs were the measurement scale, this study further

Table 4 Final CFA Model and Reliabilities of Religious Tourist Motivation Scale

Construct and indicator Standardized loading p-Value

Religious beliefs
Approach to Buddha .779 .000
Achieve religious belief .855 .000
Respect for Buddhism .796 .000
Seek help from Buddhism .565 .000
Pray for family and career .564 .000
Cultural enjoyment
Enjoy the religious art .742 .000
Enjoy festival events .940 .000
Enjoy the style of temple .667 .000
Experience the local customs .451 .000
Mental relaxation
Pursue mental peace .494 .000
Pursue inner happiness .691 .000
Mental self-comfort .720 .000
Experience religious atmosphere .853 .000
Construct CR AVE
Religious beliefs .9582 .8254
Cultural enjoyment .8886 .6793
Mental relaxation .9479 .8248

Note: CR: composite reliability; AVE: average variance extracted.

 Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain
explored how degree of religious belief and
past experience affected religious motivations.
The belief was the primitive driven force of reli-
gious tourism (Rinschede, 1992; Shinde,
2011), and it was an essential factor that
affected religious tourist motivations. Mean-
while, regular daily life and shallowness of
experience led to the desire to pursue a differ-
ent life or enjoy a typical religious atmosphere
(MacCannell, 1976; Turner & Ash, 1975;
Wei, 2010). Furthermore, people may also be
committed to an “elective” spiritual center
because of their past authentic experience at
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this site (Cohen, 1979). Therefore, in the estab-
lished path diagram, three derived motivation
constructs were classified as endogenous vari-
ables and exogenous variables were past
experience and degree of religious belief. As a
result, seven path coefficients were tested to
determine the causal relationship between
these exogenous and endogenous variables.
The causal relationship between the two
exogenous variables was also assessed.
According to the path analysis results, the pro-
posed path diagram was modified by eliminat-
Figure 1 Path Diagram of Religious Behavior and Motivations.
11
ing three insignificant coefficients. The results
of the path analysis and the modified model
were presented in Figure 1. The model fit was
perfect, with goodness-of-fit index = 99.5%,
comparative fit index = 98.1%, normed fit
index = 96.8%, root mean square residual =
2.5%, and root mean square error of approxi-
mation = 5.0%.
The result showed that the two exogenous
variables were significantly correlated. Tour-
ists’ past experience had a significant positive
effect on their religious belief, while degree of
religious belief had a significant positive influ-
ence on religious belief and mental relaxation.
However, neither of the two exogenous vari-
ables had an effect on cultural enjoyment. On
the whole, past experience and degree of reli-
gious belief had positive effects on religious
motivations. The standardized regression
weights suggested that the degree of religious
belief was the deepest source of ongoing reli-
gious motivations. The higher the degree of
religious belief, the stronger motivation tour-
ists had to visit the sacred Buddhist Mountains.
In addition, past experience played a direct role
 12 Wanfei Wang et al.
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Figure 2 Motivations to Visit Religious Site and Factors that influence Religious Tourist
Motivations.
on tourists’ degree of religious belief, which
then indirectly affected their motivations for a
journey of faith.
Push-and-Pull Factors for Visiting
Religious Site
According to the push-and-pull motivation fra-
mework (Dann, 1981), the derived motivation
constructs could be classified as push factors
and pull factors. The push (internal/intrinsic)
factors were religious beliefs and mental relax-
ation, while the pull (external/extrinsic) factors
were cultural enjoyment and one item belonging
to mental relaxation (Figure 2). There were
more internal factors than external ones that
had impact on religious tourist motivations.
As for the push factors, there was little that
local community at the religious site could do
to increase tourist motivations. However, by
protecting original religious arts and temples,
keeping traditional festival events and local
customs, and improving religious atmosphere,
local community could pull tourists visiting
the sacred site. Furthermore, the established
path diagram (Figure 1) suggested that both
tourists’ past experience and degree of religious
belief significantly affect push factors. But the
degree of religious belief had a significant influ-
ence on some of pull factors. As discussed
earlier, the degree of religious belief was the
primitive source of push-and-pull factors that
motivate tourists traveling to religious sites.
Conclusion
This study developed and tested a valid scale
measuring the motivations of religious tourists
 Religious Tourist Motivation in Buddhist Mountain
within the Chinese context. The model was
developed using data generated by a survey
of tourists at one of the most representative
Chinese religious sites, Putuo Mountain. This
study further explored how tourists’ past
experience and degree of religious belief had
influence on the derived constructs of religious
tourist motivations. The religious tourist
motivations could be divided into push-and-
pull factors which was beneficial to manage
religious site sustainably.
First, to measure the motivations of religious
tourists, this study developed a 20-item scale.
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According to Cronbach’s test of reliability,
the 20 attributes had satisfactory internal con-
sistency. Three constructs with high internal
reliability and significant unidimensionality
were extracted by EFA. The three-construct
model was improved by CFA, which showed
the reliability and validity of the measurement
scale to be satisfactory. Furthermore, the com-
posite score and estimated variance extracted
by each construct were used to evaluate the
motivations of religious tourists. The results
revealed that the overall reliability of the
measurement scale was satisfactory. To
improve the model fit, the attribute “enjoy
the unique religious culture” was deleted
from the cultural enjoyment construct.
Perhaps, the meaning of the eliminated attri-
bute was interpreted as similar to the mental
relaxation attributes. Thus, the meaning of
each attribute will need to be described more
precisely to improve the model fit in a future
study. The derived measurement scale was
different from previous studies, because it gen-
erated 13 core items that motivate tourists visit
religious sites. The new scale implied that the
basic motivations of religious tourists were to
fulfill their spiritual desires, such as seeking
reality and authenticity of the sacred experi-
ence (Cohen, 1979; MacCannell, 1976) and
experiencing the solemn peaceful Buddhist
13
atmosphere of Putuo Mount (Liao, 2010;
Wong et al., 2013).
In addition to developing a reliable and valid
measurement scale, the study also explored
how tourists’ past experience and degree of
religious belief affect the derived motivation
constructs. The results indicated that past
experience and degree of religious belief have
a positive effect on religious tourists’ religious
beliefs and mental relaxation. Therefore, it is
important for policy-makers and local commu-
nities to improve the quality of tourist experi-
ence. Today rapidly increasing business
activities are emerging at religious sites in
order to obtain economic growth at Chinese
religious sites (Cheng, 2007; Chen & Chen,
2011; Zan, 2013; Zhang & Sun, 2008).
However, although typical souvenirs or
tourism commodities sold at religious sites
can be thought as part of the local culture,
the commercialization of religion has a nega-
tive impact on tourist satisfaction and their
perceived value of sacred journey (Gatrell &
Collins-Kreiner, 2006; Kasim, 2011). That is
to say, too many commercial behaviors will
do harm to the sustainable development of reli-
gious tourism. Therefore, the study suggests
that these commercial behaviors should be
controlled and many other elements that
improve tourist experience should be added.
Buddhism cultural atmosphere, which is ben-
eficial for tourists’ cultural enjoyment, divine
worship, and mental relaxation, is the most
important factor in sustainably attracting tour-
ists to religious sites.
Finally, the findings pointed out that reli-
gious beliefs and mental relaxation were push
factors, while cultural enjoyment and one
item belonging to mental relaxation were pull
factors. The degree of religious belief had
impacts on both push-and-pull factors. As for
the push factors, local community at the reli-
gious site is hard to change them. So much
 14 Wanfei Wang et al.
more work should be done by local community
to keep the original and traditional religious
arts and festivals which are more attractive to
religious visitors. Meanwhile, creating strong
religious atmosphere is of great importance to
the sustainable development of religious sites,
since it improve tourists’ past experience and
degree of religious belief which further increase
their revisit motivations.
Although the reliability and validity of the
final measurement scale are acceptable, the
study has some limitations. As the data were
acquired on two separate occasions, the charac-
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teristics of the respondents may have differed,
which might have influenced the study’s vali-
dation. Due to the low level of internal
reliability, leisure activities were eliminated
during the EFA. In future studies, clearer and
more consistent attributes should be used to
improve the reliability and validity of the motiv-
ation scale. With the rapid development of reli-
gious tourism, an increasingly commercial
atmosphere seems to be developing in these
sacred places. As a result, future studies should
also examine the influence of this commercial
atmosphere on tourist motivation, which will
be beneficial for improving the construct val-
idity of the developed instrument. Also, the
way to improve religious tourist satisfaction
and revisit intention should be further studied.
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