Estrategia del marketing para fortalecer el turismo para pobladores y organizadores de festividades religiosas

Madeleine Paulette Iturralde-Gamboa; Carolina Villa-Andrade

Authors

Iturralde-Gamboa Madeleine Paulette Universidad Técnica de Cotopaxi. Latacunga, Ecuador. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5403-0430
Villa-Andrade Carolina Universidad Técnica de Cotopaxi. Latacunga, Ecuador. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5702-4674

Keywords:

religious tourism; tourism marketing; digital marketing; visitor experience; festivals; intangible cultural heritage

Abstract

DOI: https://doi.org/10.46296/rc.v9i18.0448

ABSTRACT

This article analyzes the alignment between the marketing practices used by organizers of religious festivals in Latacunga, Ecuador, and visitors’ motivations, information preferences, experiences, and loyalty. A qualitative, descriptive, and applied study was conducted using purposive sampling of organizers and attendees associated with celebrations in San Buenaventura, Toacaso, Pastocalle, Mulaló, Tanicuchí, Aláquez, and 11 de Noviembre. The analytical report records 27 interviews and a corpus of 545 coded quotations processed through qualitative content analysis with ATLAS.ti 9. Twenty-nine codes were grouped into ten analytical dimensions. Organizers contributed 349 quotations (64.0%) and visitors 196 (36.0%); this difference was interpreted as a feature of discourse volume and interview-guide design rather than as a measure of relative importance. Findings revealed a hybrid value proposition grounded in faith, tradition, culture, and community interaction; a gap between promotion dominated by radio, public-address announcements, posters, and word of mouth, and visitors’ preference for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, and audiovisual content; and a predominantly positive visitor experience, with favorable return and recommendation intentions despite recurring shortcomings in signage, scheduling, and digital communication. The study concludes that strengthening religious tourism requires preserving community authenticity, professionalizing the digital ecosystem, improving visitor reception, and transforming spontaneous loyalty into a measurable relationship-marketing strategy.

Keywords: religious tourism; tourism marketing; digital marketing; visitor experience; festivals; intangible cultural heritage.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Armutcu, B., Tan, A., Amponsah, M., Parida, S., & Ramkissoon, H. (2023). Tourist behaviour: The role of digital marketing and social media. Acta Psychologica, 240, 104025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.104025

Aulet, S., & Vidal-Casellas, D. (2018). Tourism and religion: Sacred spaces as transmitters of heritage values. Church, Communication and Culture, 3(3), 237–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/23753234.2018.1542280

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa

Drăguleasa, I.-A., Niță, A., Mazilu, M., & Constantinescu, E. (2024). Religious tourism and pilgrimage in Vâlcea County, South-West Oltenia Region: Motivations, belief and tourists’ perceptions. Religions, 15(3), 294. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030294

Getz, D., & Page, S. J. (2016). Progress and prospects for event tourism research. Tourism Management, 52, 593–631. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.03.007

Guest, G., Namey, E., & Chen, M. (2020). A simple method to assess and report thematic saturation in qualitative research. PLOS ONE, 15(5), e0232076. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232076

Hennink, M., & Kaiser, B. N. (2022). Sample sizes for saturation in qualitative research: A systematic review of empirical tests. Social Science & Medicine, 292, 114523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114523

Kuckartz, U., & Rädiker, S. (2023). Qualitative content analysis: Methods, practice and software (2nd ed.). SAGE.

Ministerio de Turismo del Ecuador. (2021). Manual de señalización turística. Ministerio de Turismo.

Polus, R., Carr, N., & Walters, T. (2022). Conceptualizing the changing faces of pilgrimage through contemporary tourism. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 5, 321–335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41978-022-00109-7

Qiu, Q., Zuo, Y., & Zhang, M. (2022). Intangible cultural heritage in tourism: Research review and investigation of future agenda. Land, 11(1), 139. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11010139

Rybina, L., & Lee, T. J. (2021). Traveler motivation and destination loyalty: Visiting sacred places in Central Asia. Tourism and Hospitality, 2(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3390/tourhosp2010001

United Nations World Tourism Organization. (n.d.). Global code of ethics for tourism. UN Tourism.

Wang, K.-Y., Kasim, A., & Yu, J. (2020). Religious festival marketing: Distinguishing between devout believers and tourists. Religions, 11(8), 413. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel11080413