Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, Vol. 7, No. 3, August, 2019 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 72 P-ISSN 2350-7756 | E-ISSN 2350-8442 | www.apjmr.com Religious Tourism Assessment and Carrying Capacity: The Case of National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio in Batangas, Philippines Emil John Cabrera 1 , Jioie Muriel dela Vega 1 , Joela Mizchelle dela Vega1, Alvaro Dioquino Jr. 1 , Cherry Favor 1 2 and Leah Navarro 1,3 1 University of the Philippines Los Baños, 2 Southern Luzon State University- JGEMSOF, 3 Cavite State University Naic, Cavite, Philippines Date Received: October 6, 2018; Date Revised: July 18, 2019 Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Vol. 7 No.3, 72-78 August 2019 P-ISSN 2350-7756 E-ISSN 2350-8442 www.apjmr.com CHED Recognized Journal ASEAN Citation Index Abstract - This study in National Shrine of Saint Padre Pio, Batangas, Philippines aims to assess the religious tourism and carrying capacity of the area where survey and key informant interviews were used to gather information like church structure, rules and regulation of the shrine, as well as socio- demographic profile of the tourists/visitors. The study revealed that majority of the 120 respondents in the area are young adults in the age group of 20-25 years old that have a monthly income of 200 USD (PhP10,000.00) and below. Church, healing, family bonding and recreation are the top reasons of the tourists in visiting the area. Mode of transportation is mostly by the use of private vehicles specifically cars and motorcycles. Using the formula of Boullon and Limit of Acceptable Change, the carrying capacity for the Shrine was computed to be 1,720 (upper limit) and 431 (lower limit) in the assumption that 8,000 square meters is being utilized. With the growing population volume of visitors, environmental concerns like orderliness and cleanliness, specifically in terms of solid waste management must be included in the set of rules and regulations of the National Shrine so that environmental degradation in the area can be minimized. Keywords: religious tourism, carrying capacity, environmental concern INTRODUCTION Institution is defined as a society or an established organization for an educational, social, religious or similar purpose that is working together for a common goal. Church is an example of religious organization representing an institution. According to Williams [1], the word church in the Bible comes from the Greek word “ecclesia”, which means a called out company or assembly. Church is also an association which have its own belief system, rules, norms and structure. Catholic Church also known as Roman Catholic Church is the biggest Christian church in the world. Every year, holy week is being celebrated by this church organization. As part of this church activity, pilgrimage is being observed by the Catholic members by visiting the different Stations of the Cross. This customary activity by its members is considered as religious tourism. A kind of tourism wherein people travel together as a group or in individual for leisure, fellowship, pilgrimage or missionary purpose is what religious tourism is all about. It is commonly known as “spiritual” or “faith” tourism. Rinschede [2] defines religious tourism is as the form that is exclusively or strongly motivated for religious reasons. He classified religious tourism in various forms such as short term, long term and organizational form. The short-term religious tourism is distinguished by excursions to nearby pilgrimage centers or religious conferences. The long-term describes visits of several days or weeks to national and international pilgrimage sites or conferences. Organizational forms of religious tourism can be distinguished by definitive characteristics such as number of participants, choice of transport, seasonal travel, and social structure. “The religious person is one who seeks coherence and meaning in this world, and a religious culture is one that has a clearly structured world view. The religious impulse is to tie things together---All human beings are religious if religion is broadly defined as the impulse for coherence and meaning. The strength of the impulse varies enormously from culture to culture, and from person to person” [3]. Under cultural tourism, religious tourism is especially categorized and segmented [4]. There are