Abstract: The United Nations World Trade Organization, is pointed out, that the tourism sector is one among the prime industries in terms of providing jobs and foreign revenue from tourists. Basically, Pilgrim tourism will come under the tourist sector. It brings persons from various places that are different in religion and civilization, provides a chance for pilgrims to meet, interact and to understand cultures of the other people. India receives an average of two billion tourists every year including the domestic pilgrims who visit many pilgrim places. A recent report of World Travel and Tourism Council states that Tamil Nadu only receives 21% of in total tourists’ visits in India. This visit promotes the high growth of food and shopping sector in India, which supplies additional job opportunities which increase the quality of products and level of satisfaction in the pilgrim centres. Hotels and shopping malls in Pilgrim zones provide good quality of food and products. But still, there is a prevailing wrong perception found among pilgrims towards price and quality of available products. Pilgrims perception largely varies towards the food served at hotels, amenities provided at staying places and products sold in the centres at tourist places. This empirical study identify the pilgrim’s perceptions about food and shopping amenities at Vellore, a city in Tamil Nadu. The study concludes that the hygiene of food products the mean score value is 3.38, ranked 1, hygiene and sanitation at shopping centres, mean score value is 3.34, ranked 1.

Keywords: Pilgrimage, perception, food, shopping behaviour, facilities

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2021.8876