Despite the prevalence of theories based on religious tourism, very little research has been done on educational motivation. Up until now, educational motivation has played a secondary role. Most religious tourism studies hardly mention educational motivation as a driver to visit sacred places. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by analysing its relevance as a key motivation in religious tourism. A total of 242 visitors were interviewed in 2017. The mediator effect of educational motivation is measured and compared with other tourist motivations, such as religious, environmental and rural, and cultural with PLS-SEM. The research discussed here evaluates the direct or indirect effect of educational motivation on touristś learning experience while visiting a religious place, in this case, the Royal Monastery of Guadalupe. The model revealed a strong predictive power (R² = 87.5%) and reported an indirect effect between educational motivation, environmental and rural motivation and cultural motivation.
