Abstract:
The literature on spiritual tourism and destination marketing is growing with the research interest to
explain why people travel and choose any specific spiritual destination. However, research on Islamic
religious tourism is observed to be scarce even though Muslims engaging in Islamic religious tourism
are highest in numbers. More significantly, Indonesia has the largest Muslim population and the most
Muslim religious tourists in the world, but no research has been reported to study their travel
behavior. The literature on Muslims, mainly Indonesians, traveling for spiritual journeys within their
country or overseas was reviewed in this research. Hence, this conceptual paper presents a research
model which aims to understand the factors that motivate Indonesians who travel for Islamic spiritual
tourism. The model comprises of the personal and external factors. There are three personal factors,
namely religious belief, learning and inspiration to visit the holy site. The three external factors are
identified as social status, the role of family and financial costs. Relationships between these factors
are discussed, together with the research propositions. Research implications of the conceptual model
are also highlighted in this paper. In the future, these factors will be empirically tested.
