Strategic Marketing Communication in Pilgrimage Tourism

The paper discusses the pilgrimage tourism as one of the oldest forms of tourism. Although it is often considered as marginal, the pilgrimage tourism is indeed one of the most widespread forms of tourism. Due to the historical context all the necessary prerequisites for the use of its potential are developed in Slovakia. There is a large amount of destinations and sites that are by their nature or historical value of interest for domestic and foreign visitors. Visitors from all over the world participating in significant pilgrimages bounded to these destinations. However deficiencies in marketing communication, infrastructure and other areas hinder the development of pilgrimage and religious tourism in Slovakia. To determine the current state of marketing communications in pilgrimage tourism questionnaire survey was conducted. In achieving the purpose of the research, two hypotheses were formulated. Because, the relationship between a dependent variable was examined, and the interval variable is one, Single Factor Analysis of Variance ANOVA was used. Homogeneity of variance was verified using Bartlett's and Levene's test. Recommendations for the development of communications strategy are formulated based on the results of the analysis. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.