Location
Monserrat
Start Date
25-6-2026 9:30 AM
End Date
25-6-2026 11:00 AM
Description
Tourism experiences are increasingly shaped by digital technologies and social media, with destinations and attractions often selected, consumed, and remembered through their visual appeal. Platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat have transformed the ways in which tourists select and engage with tourist sites and attractions, including sacred and religious sites. While mosque tourism emerged over a decade ago as a central feature of Islamic tourism, emphasizing the religious, cultural, and social significance of mosques for both Muslim and non-Muslim visitors, the rapid growth of social media has fundamentally altered how these spaces are experienced and represented. Today, mosques function not only as places of worship and cultural heritage attractions, but also as tourism icons, symbols of national identity, and instruments of destination branding. Their architectural aesthetics and symbolic value make them particularly visible within contemporary visual culture, where images, selfies, and user-generated content increasingly shape visitor experiences. This shift raises important questions regarding the relationship between sacredness, tourism, and digital representation. The paper revisits the concept of mosque tourism ten years after its initial conceptualization and examines how mosque tourism has evolved into a visually mediated and digitally consumed tourism experience. Using the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque as an exploratory case study, the research adopts a triangulated digital ethnographic approach combining Instagram visual content analysis, TripAdvisor review analysis, and reflexive field observations to understand the reconceptualization of mosques in the social media era. The paper introduces the concept of Instagrammable Sacredness and its associated framework to explain how digital representations of mosques can simultaneously generate processes of commodification and intercultural engagement. Preliminary findings suggest that social media contributes to the aestheticization of sacred spaces through visual consumption and performative tourism practices. The analysis reveals that digital representations of mosques can enhance cultural learning, promote intercultural dialogue and provide a more nuanced perspective on Islam. The findings also highlight the importance of visitor management strategies and photography policies that can effectively balance spiritual authenticity, tourism development and intercultural accessibility in our contemporary digital tourism landscape.
Creative Commons License
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Included in
A2) Instagrammable Sacredness: The commodification and visual consumption of Mosque Tourism
Monserrat
Tourism experiences are increasingly shaped by digital technologies and social media, with destinations and attractions often selected, consumed, and remembered through their visual appeal. Platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat have transformed the ways in which tourists select and engage with tourist sites and attractions, including sacred and religious sites. While mosque tourism emerged over a decade ago as a central feature of Islamic tourism, emphasizing the religious, cultural, and social significance of mosques for both Muslim and non-Muslim visitors, the rapid growth of social media has fundamentally altered how these spaces are experienced and represented. Today, mosques function not only as places of worship and cultural heritage attractions, but also as tourism icons, symbols of national identity, and instruments of destination branding. Their architectural aesthetics and symbolic value make them particularly visible within contemporary visual culture, where images, selfies, and user-generated content increasingly shape visitor experiences. This shift raises important questions regarding the relationship between sacredness, tourism, and digital representation. The paper revisits the concept of mosque tourism ten years after its initial conceptualization and examines how mosque tourism has evolved into a visually mediated and digitally consumed tourism experience. Using the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque as an exploratory case study, the research adopts a triangulated digital ethnographic approach combining Instagram visual content analysis, TripAdvisor review analysis, and reflexive field observations to understand the reconceptualization of mosques in the social media era. The paper introduces the concept of Instagrammable Sacredness and its associated framework to explain how digital representations of mosques can simultaneously generate processes of commodification and intercultural engagement. Preliminary findings suggest that social media contributes to the aestheticization of sacred spaces through visual consumption and performative tourism practices. The analysis reveals that digital representations of mosques can enhance cultural learning, promote intercultural dialogue and provide a more nuanced perspective on Islam. The findings also highlight the importance of visitor management strategies and photography policies that can effectively balance spiritual authenticity, tourism development and intercultural accessibility in our contemporary digital tourism landscape.