Religious Tourism

Resumen: Los santuarios religiosos representan, en la actualidad, espacios de atracción de turistas, creyentes o no, y de devotos; sobresalen algunos que, por su magnetismo espiritual, exhiben áreas extendidas de adherencia devocional y turística. Guatemala se inserta en el escenario anterior a través del caso de la Basílica de Esquipulas que resguarda a la venerada imagen del Cristo Negro; ubicada en la Ciudad-Santuario homónima al suroriente del arribo cíclico de miles de turistas y peregrinos que incentivan la economía local. El contexto territorial referido motivó la realización de este trabajo que tiene como objetivo revelar características geográficas del turismo religioso en el Santuario del Cristo Negro de Esquipulas; en una primera parte, se precisan los postulados teórico-conceptuales examinados que atañen al turismo religioso; posteriormente, se describen particularidades geográficas del contexto regional y local; finalmente, se detallan los hallazgos que comprueban la importancia geográfica del turismo religioso en el Santuario a partir de la investigación en gabinete y el trabajo realizado en campo. Palabras claves: Turismo religioso, lugar sagrado, magnetismo espiritual, Esquipulas. Abstract: At present, religious sanctuaries all over the world, attract a considerable amount of tourists, devotees or otherwise. Due to their spiritual magnetism, these places create ample devotional and tourist hinterlands. It is in this context that Guatemala stands prominently; in the southeast of the country, the Esquipulas Basilica homes the wood-carved Black Christ, a popular image which annually attracts thousands of tourists and pilgrims that endorse the local economy. Considering this situation, the city of Esquipulas is recognized as the Faith Capital of Central America. This paper aims at examining the geographical attributes of religious tourism in the Black Christ sanctuary of Esquipulas. In the first part of the text, we present the theoretical platform used to study religious tourism; then, we describe the geographical features of Esquipulas at both regional and local scales. Finally, we present our main research results; they authenticate the geographical importance of religious tourism in this Basilica.

The concept of Islamic Tourism is relatively new and the emergence of Muslim tourists who travel and experience tourism related activities calls for a better understanding of their motivation and typology. Their existence in the past was mostly associated with pilgrimage practices as historically recorded in the visitation to Mecca. However, there is limited research on Muslim expectations that lead to motivation to travel. The current trend among Muslim tourists is not only to relate it to pilgrimage but also as part of the Islamic lifestyle that required them to rediscover Islamic civilization and religious values around the world. This includes activities such as visiting Islamic based attractions for its historic value, socio-cultural value, new theme development from Islamic perspectives and new volunteer activities to less developed Muslim areas. In Malaysia, tourism stakeholders have begun to appreciate the potentials of local tourism products to be promoted to the various Muslim segments of the world market. Each segment is expected to seek both peculiar and universal needs which will influence their motivation and behavior, a part of which is driven by religious considerations. It is important to understand the different Muslim tourist sub-segments in comparison to the mass tourists or other special interest categories that have been adequately covered in the literature. In order to develop a firm grasp of tourist motivation among Muslim travelers, in depth studies on them are essential. Thus, this paper explores the perspective and challenges of Muslim tourism planners and managers to fill the gaps in existing knowledge on this growing segment of the Muslim travel market.

The present paper, attends to the theme of COVID-19 and its negative effects on the tourism and
pilgrimage industries. To be honest, although conclusive findings on this topic are premature
in view of the velocity of facts, no less true seems to be that COVID-19 reaffirms a tendency
originally stipulated just after 9/11 and declaration of the War On Terror by Bush’s administration.
COVID-19 not only has shocked the world cancelling international flights, closing borders and
airspaces, making irreparable damages to tourism and hospitality but it has operated on a much
deeper level, developing a culture of fear, where ‘other’ is feared and neglected. This point, which
was envisaged by the founding parents of sociology, today can be empirically tested with daily
facts. At a closer look, hospitality and pilgrimage are inevitably entwined. Hence the thesis this
paper holds is that COVID-19 accelerates a moral crisis in Western civilisation that leads the
sacred-law of hospitality (at least as the Greeks imagined it) to its death.

Religious sites, either as places of pilgrimage or as cultural resources, have always attracted the tourists’ interest. The tourist value of religious areas is enhanced when these are combined with a special natural beauty. These choices are identified in
many regions both in Greece and abroad and concern different religions and doctrines. The monasteries of Meteora, Mount Athos, St John the Theologian in Patmos etc. are indicative examples in Greece.
The protection of the sacred areas has drawn the attention of the Greek State which has adopted a special legal framework to protect the sacred sites, the monuments, the heirlooms and the treasures. This regulatory framework is composed of laws concerning specific regions, both continental and insular. There is similar legal protection in other countries as well.
This study examines the special legal framework governing the sacred places of Greece and at the same time treats the question often raised when conflicts arise between the religious character of the place –pilgrimage- and the cultural character of the place –cultural interest leading to religio-cultural tourism. In other words, there is a question whether the sacred nature of the place complies with its cultural nature and to what extent cultural tourism affects the pilgrimage in sacred places with an active
religious activity. There is also a question whether the implementation of restrictions and restraints on sacred places and sites and the reduction of disturbances from the “hordes” of tourists are practically possible.
The answers to these questions vary according to the perspective and the position of the person who examines the issue, namely according to what they consider prevalent: the pilgrimage character or the cultural character. In any case, by
establishing the sacred nature of the place, the legislator tries to make the two elements compatible. However, the achievement of this goal depends on those who enforce the law.

ABSTRACT
Cultural tourism is a special form of alternative tourism and it is regarded as a
priority for European tourism policies as well. The concept of cultural routes is directly
related with the concept of cultural tourism. Through a cultural route we become
acquainted with the culture, the history and the local heritage of a place. These routes
can also raise religious interest if the element of faith is involved. This thesis refers to
the European cultural and pilgrimage route of Cyril and Methodius. Reference is made
to the cultural and religious tourism and to the institutional framework regarding cultural
routes. In this thesis is also presented the life and the contribution of Cyril and
Methodius to the world of Slavs. Furthermore, statistics are provided about the foreign
tourist arrivals in Greece and in general about the tourism in Thessaloniki. Finally are
proposed ways of promoting the religious tourism in Thessaloniki in relation to the
Saints Cyril and Methodius.
Key words: Cultural tourism, European cultural routes, Pilgrimage tourism, Cyril and
Methodius, Cyrillic script.

Esta tese explora algumas das possíveis relações entre turismo e identidades religiosas, e pretende contribuir com a ampliação das perspectivas teóricas sobre desenvolvimento do turismo e culturas. Partiu da percepção de que em muitos destinos turísticos no mundo o que efetivamente se visita são templos e festivais religiosos locais, mesmo que a escolha da viagem não tenha sido prioritariamente pautada nas crenças religiosas do turista. Este é também o caso da Bahia, estado brasileiro que concentra a maior população afro-descendente no Brasil, e onde o visitante consome diversas formas de expressão do Candomblé e do Catolicismo, mesmo quando não tem sua própria identidade religiosa relacionada a estas matrizes. Além disto, no Brasil divulga-se recorrentemente como turismo religioso a visitação a catedrais, igrejas e procissões católicas, menosprezando outras possíveis manifestações religiosas. Considerando que em alguns territórios brasileiros diferentes religiões expressam-se de forma muito notável para o olhar turístico, e que os próprios organismos de gestão pretendem promover o turismo com base na diversidade cultural, este estudo explica por que o turismo nem sempre se desenvolve relacionado às diversas identidades religiosas, mesmo quando são intensamente expressivas no território. Entendendo que a ênfase por parte dos organismos de gestão do turismo em apenas uma ou outra religião implica em limitações para a vivência turística, esta pesquisa tem o objetivo de compreender relações entre desenvolvimento do turismo e diversidade religiosa. Para tanto realiza explorações iniciais na literatura disponível, o que revela que os conceitos de turismo religioso e de turismo cultural não têm potencial explicativo suficiente para fins desta tese. Visando suprir esta lacuna teórica, o presente estudo define um conceito próprio, o de „turismo em territórios de grande densidade religiosa‟, modelado especialmente na transdisciplinaridade entre os campos do conhecimento da geografia, antropologia e gestão do turismo. De posse do novo conceito, busca um território de grande densidade religiosa onde o desenvolvimento do turismo ocorre de forma mais inclusiva da diversidade religiosa. Este foi o caso do turismo no Novo México, estado que possui uma das maiores populações de Índios Americanos nos EUA, e onde as comunidades tribais são ativas na gestão do turismo que ocorre em seus territórios soberanos, modelando as possibilidades de desenvolvimento do turismo. Sendo o contexto propício para operacionalizar o conceito proposto, o caso do Novo México permite sustentar a tese de que o desenvolvimento do turismo está relacionado à habilidade que seus organismos de gestão têm para capturar as formas de expressão das identidades religiosas, que são, por sua vez, moldadas na trajetória histórica através de constantes dinâmicas de afirmação de poderes e de resistência. O estudo conclui que turismo pode ser compreendido como um mecanismo de poder em territórios de grande densidade religiosa, no qual o discurso construído sobre as identidades culturais é um dos principais elementos definidores da vivência turística. Aponta como os organismos de gestão podem capturar as formas de expressão das diversas identidades religiosas melhorando a vivência turística para turistas e para comunidades locais. Evidencia que o discurso dos organismos de gestão confere ao turismo a dupla característica de ser ao mesmo tempo um mecanismo que reflete e traduz a diversidade religiosa do território para o turista, e um mecanismo que interfere na afirmação ou transformação das relações de poder presentes no território.

Światowe Dni Młodzieży to nie tylko uroczystość religijna, ale i wielkie wydarzenie
kulturalne. Młodzi ludzie z całego świata, reprezentujący setki nacji i grup
etnicznych, wspólnie celebrują swoją różnorodność, jednocześnie stanowiąc żywe
świadectwo wspólnoty w wierze chrześcijańskiej.
Obok licznych wydarzeń o charakterze duchowym (spotkania z papieżem,
msze św., katechezy, akcje przygotowane przez wspólnoty religijne, Centrum
Powołaniowe, Droga Krzyżowa, Strefa Pojednania itd.) Światowym Dniom Młodzieży
towarzyszyło wiele eventów kulturalnych i atrakcji turystycznych. Z jednej strony
była to oprawa koordynowana przez Komitet Organizacyjny (KO), z drugiej przygotowywana
„oddolnie” przez gminy i parafie goszczące pielgrzymów. Wówczas
mocno zaangażowane były samorządy oraz organizacje trzeciego sektora.

Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial Center, founded by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, is a newly opened Buddhist site in Taiwan, which not only serves as a combined museum, art gallery and religious landmark, but also a diverse cultural, education and art center whose total number of visitors in the first year of its opening exceeded ten million, higher than that of the Louvre in 2012, and has continued to rise in successive years. The Center also became the youngest museum to be recognized as a member of ICOM, receive ISO50001 certification, and listed on Tripadvisor as one of the top three tourist destinations in Taiwan within the first four years of its opening. Owing to more than just the stunning architectural complex and open space layout, a rich collection of permanent and temporary art exhibitions, live Buddhist and Chinese cultural performances, interfaith festivities, as well as social welfare events are among the contributing factors of the Center's success. This paper aims to study the relationship between the modern approaches of Dharma propagation in Humanistic Buddhism and religious tourism in attempt to discuss the success of Buddha Memorial Center's development as well as its future prospective in the dissemination of Buddhism.

This chapter discusses a classical tradition of pilgrimage called Dnyaneshwar palkhi in Maharashtra. The focus is on forwarding a contemporary understanding how this pilgrimage procession is organized considering the scale of this event and understanding the impacts on the places through which this procession goes through. It is based on the author’s experiences of the 2016 palkhi where the number of participants were staggering: close to half a million pilgrims participated in this walking procession, and were accompanied by more than 2000 trucks, and utilized more than a 1000 tents.

Fungsi utama dari Klenteng Sanggar Agung tentunya sebagai tempat ibadah khusus untuk umat Tridharma seperti agama Khonghucu, Buddha dan Taoisme. Berlokasi di tepi laut membuat klenteng ini sering menjadi tempat rujukan bagi keluarga yang hendak nyekar leluhur mereka. Terutama yang telah dikremasi. Uniknya untuk mengurus klenteng ini juga terdapat karyawan dari umat beragama lain seperti dari umat Islam dan Kristen.

Religious tourism was one of the oldest and most popular types of tourism in the world and the holy city of Mashhad is the most important religious tourism hub in Iran due to the holy shrine of Imam Reza. Therefore, with the aim of deep understanding of the religious tourism brand of Mashhad, through the cognitive approach and interview-centric approach of the ZMET technique, the cognitive structures of tourists in Mashhad were examined and analyzed to extract the mental map of tourists towards the city of Mashhad. In this regard, 11 students of Allameh Tabatabai University who traveled to Mashhad and had a high level of mental conflict with this city were interviewed. 22 constructs were integrated into the consensus map. The constructs of "Imam Reza Shrine", "Tourist City", "Religious City", "Shopping Centers", "Recreation Centers" and "Hotel" were the main and basic constructs. The most frequent basic construct that had the most contact with the Mashhad brand was the Imam Reza shrine, which was associated with a "feeling of peace" in people. Among the negative construct about the Mashhad brand were "lack of sea" and "extortion and selling counterfeit goods", which were related to the basic constructs of the tourist city and shopping centers, respectively.

Pilgrimage is one of the oldest and most basic forms of population mobility known to human society, and its political, social, cultural and economic implications have always been, and continue to be, substantial. This study aims to examine key issues, arguments and conceptualizations in the scholarship on pilgrimage in order to better understand how it has changed over the years. The findings indicate a shift to a postmodern approach within the study of pilgrimage, particularly with regard to the increasingly obfuscated boundary between tourism and pilgrimage reflected in the terms secular pilgrimage and religious pilgrimage. Dedifferentiation has penetrated the scholarship in terms of its features and its multidisciplinary treatment by researchers.

Il 17 Giugno 2019, in occasione della Borsa del Turismo Religioso Internazionale, è stato presentato il primo Report sul Turismo Religioso pubblicato da Vaticano.com.

La ricerca frutto del sostegno e della collaborazione di ISNART (Istituto Nazionale di Statistica sul Turismo) dell’Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose “Redemptoris Mater” di Ancona, aggregato alla Pontificia Università Lateranense, della Borsa del Turismo Religioso Internazionale e di Halley Informatica.

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.

2016. Yavi está a 16 kilómetros de La Quiaca, en la Puna, en la provincia de Jujuy, norte de Argentina, justo en la línea fronteriza con Bolivia, a más de 3500 metros de altura sobre el nivel del mar. Las doctrinas son grupos de personas que vienen desde las comunidades agrícolas y pastoriles cercanas a Yavi, entonando cantos que remedan lamentos, para la celebración de la misa por el Viernes Santo, en la iglesia de San Francisco, y del posterior viacrucis por el pueblo, que se extiende durante toda la noche y concluye al amanecer. Hasta la década de 1960 se celebraban festividades similares en otros pueblos del altiplano (Iruya, Susques, Cochinoca, Santa Victoria), pero los viejos murieron y los jóvenes perdieron el interés, los cantos se olvidaron y nadie escribió otros nuevos, los pobladores pasaron la página, se desentendieron. Hace apenas medio siglo que las doctrinas se asocian exclusivamente con Yavi y hace muchos menos años que la burocracia gubernamental comenzó a incentivar la celebración porque se trata de un método para figurar en el trazado cartográfico de la cultura regional y nacional.

Desde los orígenes de la humanidad, la espiritualidad ha sido importante para el desarrollo de las sociedades. Los pueblos manifiestan su culto a través de imágenes, creaciones artísticas y espacios naturales como montañas y lagos; en ellos se establece un vínculo entre el mundo material y el mundo espiritual que da como resultado la edificación de santuarios. En ocasiones, estas obras arquitectónicas son detonantes en la construcción de poblaciones y se vuelven sitos que aglomeran continuamente grandes cantidades de personas de manera temporal. En este sentido, más de la mitad de los turistas que anualmente visitan un centro religioso se dirigen a un santuario católico, entre las que destacan Basílicas como la de San Pedro en el Vaticano, Fátima en Portugal y Guadalupe en México, templos de renombre mundial.
En ese sentido, Guatemala es un país que cuenta con diversos recursos para el turismo, de índole natural y cultural, estos últimos asociados al sincretismo producto de la mezcla entre la religión católica y las costumbres indígenas. Ello se refleja en sus múltiples festividades y en santuarios como la Catedral en la Ciudad de Guatemala o la Basílica de Esquipulas; ubicada en la Ciudad-Santuario homónima al suroriente de Guatemala, esta última resguarda la imagen del Cristo Negro cuya importancia espiritual a nivel regional ha hecho que sea reconocida como la “Capital Centroamericana de la Fe” por lo que ha sido sede de diversos encuentros regionales de integración. Continuamente, la ciudad es visitada por miles de peregrinos y turistas, los cuales mueven los motores de la economía local y nacional al generar eslabonamientos hacia adelante y hacia atrás que reditúan en ingresos para la población; sin embargo, el alcance regional que posee el turismo religioso católico en este santuario ha sido poco estudiado pese a ser considerado el lugar sagrado más importante y el más visitado en Centroamérica. La fama del santuario se debe a las implicaciones históricas que hermanan a los países de la región que, a su vez, explican el sincretismo existente que hace que aviva las costumbres prehispánicas y coloniales en esta parte del continente. Los migrantes, por su parte, desempeñan otra labor importante puesto que llevan el culto hacia otros lugares, especialmente en las poblaciones que recorren en su trayecto hacia Estados Unidos.

In modern society which, by definition is increasingly secular and culturally motivated, the Hajj is considered the culmination of each Muslim's religious duty and aspiration. It is stated in the Holy Qur'an, that every physically and financially able Muslim should make the Hajj to the Holy City of Makkah once in his or her lifetime.
This paper explores what people do during their pilgrimage, providing a brief description of the principle rites and experiences and their meaning to an individual participants travelling from the USA. The paper will draw upon previously published literature as well as an analysis of findings from a quantitative study in which steps within the pilgrimage process were explored.
These findings include participants’ descriptions of the significance and value of the experience which individual pilgrims face during travel to the holy city of Makkah. The results from the quantitative study indicated that the main motivations to attend the annual pilgrimage of Hajj were to fulfill religious obligation, spiritual enhancement and to follow teachings of the Quran and the Prophet Muhammad.

Since the number of people who wish to escape from modern life, the urban chaotic and everyday rush is increasing; religious tourism is rapidly growing within the international tourism market. Consequently, the value of religious tourism to the local economy and community development has become more critical today than long ago. This article critically reflects the practices, potentials, and challenges of religious tourism development in the Dire Sheikh Hussein area. It also explores means of ensuring better and competitive religious tourism destination that significantly contributes to the livelihood of the local community and country's economy. The study is descriptive in its design, and both qualitative and quantitative (mixed) research approaches were employed. Multiple methods of data collection, including questionnaires, interviews, and observation, were used to enhance the validity of data and substantiate findings of the study. Both probability and non-probability sampling techniques were employed in different instances. The sample size was determined by using Gomm's formula, and it was 267. Several descriptive statistics, mainly frequency, cross-tabulation, and chi-square tests, were employed to assess relationships between different variables. The findings of the study reveal that the positive attitude of the local community towards the Dire Sheikh Hussein shrine, its active participation in the conservation of heritage, and the high benefits the local community derives from religious tourism are the major reasons for the superior condition of heritages in the area. The study also uncovered the tremendous cultural, religious, and natural tourism resource endowments of the Dire Sheikh Hussein area. However, religious tourism could not contribute to the food security of the area, mainly due to many challenges such as lack of infrastructure and facilities, social problems, absence of event management, lack of budget, promotion, and attention from the regional and federal government and so on. Hence, possible solutions and recommendations are provided.

This book provides us with a comprehensive understanding of the arguments regarding religious tourism products and their growing consumer market. It touches upon the secular and the traditional aspects of religion in contemporary society – the believers and faithful on the one hand, and the experience seekers on the other. A well-structured book and a must-read for those interested in religious tourism. Carlos Fernandes, Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, Portugal
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This book will become the new standard work on Christian travel, a significant element in modern day tourism. There is nothing in the current literature which matches the depth and detail of this volume. It is well-organised, raises many important questions, presents well-documented arguments from a sound theoretical base and includes informative graphics and an impressive and highly valuable bibliography. Richard Butler, Emeritus, University of Strathclyde, UK
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This book is the first comprehensive study of the role of contemporary Christian travel and thus fills a huge gap in the literature. It enhances our understanding of the overall subject and offers an innovative look at the complex phenomenon of religious tourism. It reminds us of religion's centrality to our understanding of contemporary society and culture and is an essential addition to the bookshelves of researchers from various disciplines. Noga Collins-Kreiner, University of Haifa, Israel
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The book has been reviewed in four academic journals:
(1) Joshan Rodrigues, Church,  Communication & Culture (2018) 3:3, 410-411.
(2) Bailey Ashton Adie, Journal of Heritage Tourism (2019) 14:5-6, 583-584, DOI: 10.1080/1743873X.2019.1607151.
(3) Shalini Singh, Tourism Recreation Research (2019) 44:2, 278-279, DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2019.1594575.
(4) Nikola Naumov, Current Issues in Tourism (2019) DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2019.1637106

This article examines the growth of Community-Based Tourism within the broader discipline of tourism. New topics in the field have emerged such as responsible tourism, pro-poor tourism, sports tourism and moral impacts of tourism. This phenomenon also reflects the multi-disciplinarity of tourism. In this article, using the Title, Abstract and Keywords (TAK) for instances in which the words (Community-based Tourism, Community Tourism and Community-Based Eco-Tourism) to subsume Community-Based Tourism (CBT), a search was made in various databases and found that CBT as a sub-specialty of tourism started to emerge in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The number of articles published specifically on CBT has been growing phenomenally. The major contribution of this article is that we now know the evolution of CBT and we also now know its trajectory of growth which has been upward. While the number of articles on CBT is growing, there is no journal dedicated solely to CBT.

Amarnath  Yatra:  A  Militarised  Pilgrimage  is  a  documentation  of  all  facets  of the Amarnath Yatra, an annual pilgrimage in Jammu and Kashmir. The report  studies  the  history  of  the  Yatra  and  stages  of  its  evolution  while  examining its different motivations. State institutions involved and their role – especially the administration – armed forces nexus has been explored. Other  groups  of  people  and  organisations  providing  services  in  the  Yatra  including  unorganised  labour  and  the  formal  sector  are  assessed  to  understand  the  emergent  power  dynamics  including  the  relationship  between  the  socio-religious  institutions  and  the  State.  The  Yatra  being  conducted in high altitudes has serious environmental impacts, which is also studied in detail. The Yatra is fraught with controversies and conflicts and some of the more critical instances have been documented in this report. The Amarnath Yatra is one among several others which are receiving State patronage. The other upcoming Yatras and their implications has also been documented. The report concludes that the Yatra is really being conducted on  the  might  of  the  Indian  armed  forces  along  with  socio-religious  and  langar organisations mobilising people to participate. We believe that each of these aspects may be further studied for nuances which will also throw light on how religious tourism / pilgrimages are being used by the State to exercise control in areas that are in conflict with the State.

This study confirms that halal tourism is a tourism industry which has contributed to economic growth in Indonesia, although the world economy slows down. In Indonesia, halal tourism has long been grown in the form of a pilgrimage undertaken by people with religious motivation. Along with the development of the global Islamic economy, then this type of tourism is undergoing a metamorphosis that requires a change in modern ranging from attractions, hotels, up to marketing. With the phenomenological approach, this study concludes that halal tourism has become part of the national tourism industry to position Indonesia as a center for halal tourism in the world in the future.

Keywords: industry, religion tourism, shariah tourism, halal tourism
JEL Code: L83, N53, Q57, Z31, Z32

This study assessed religious tourism in Batangas, Philippines on the following aspects: historical significance, holiness and spirituality, and customs and traditions. The assessments made were also subjected to tests of differences when the respondents are grouped as to either residents or tourists and according to their age, sex, educational attainment and employment. Results show that both tourists and residents generally concurred on all religious tourism indicators presented to them for assessment, although there were also few indicators that had lower mean assessments than the others. While the differences on the assessments made by the different groups of respondents were not statistically significant, the slight differences are still noticeable. In particular, residents had somewhat more favourable assessment than the tourists, older respondents more than the younger, males more than the females, those with higher education more than those with lower education, and government employees more than those who are not in government service. These slight but still noticeable differences, together with religious tourism indicators having lower mean assessments than the others, can serve as bases for making proposals on how to further enrich the religious tourism in Batangas.

Abstract
Since ancient times people made journeys in selected places in purpose to find the sacred or deity. Nowadays, this journey made for the expression of faith is followed by a wide range of tourism activities which characterize this phenomenon as religious tourism.
This study separates, in sociological means, the pilgrim from religious tourist, taking into account the great importance of religious element in contemporary societies.
Περίληψη
Η αναζήτηση του θείου ή του υπέρτατου όντος, απετέλεσε από την αρχαιότητα κίνητρο μετακίνησης των ανθρώπων στο χώρο. Σήμερα, αυτή η μετακίνηση για την εκδήλωση της πίστης πλαισιώνεται από ένα μεγάλο φάσμα τουριστικών δραστηριοτήτων που χαρακτηρίζουν το φαινόμενο αυτό ως θρησκευτικό τουρισμό.
Η μελέτη αυτή επιχειρεί να προσεγγίσει κοινωνιολογικά και να διαφοροποιήσει την έννοια του προσκυνητή από αυτή του θρησκευτικού τουρίστα, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τη σημασία που έχει στις σύγχρονες κοινωνίες το θρησκευτικό στοιχείο.

Religious tourism constitutes the dominant form of tourism in India and yet little is known about how it is governed and managed. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of governance and management of religious tourism. It first provides an overview of policy framework and governance mechanisms that are relevant for religious tourism. Then a market profile is presented to examine how the religious
tourism economy intersects with the state-apparatus of policies and institutions. To better explain the complexities of religious tourism, the paper employs the axis of formal-informal economy: the informal end is where the religious tourism economy is based on the traditional practice of pilgrimage, that relies on the informal networks built around social patronage relationships between visitors and religious actors; while at the formal end, it is often the state-sponsored and/or public charitable trusts that act as corporate religious bodies for providing and organising a range of services in religious tourism. Detailed studies of two sites - Vrindavan and Shirdi - provide the empirical data. The pilgrimage-town of Vrindavan in the state of Uttar Pradesh in north India represents the former; the pilgrimage town of Shirdi in the western state of Maharashtra
is an example of the latter. Vrindavan is associated with traditional religious practice and sacred geography pertaining to the Hindu god Krishna while Shirdi is dedicated to a 20th century saint, Sai Baba. Consequently, the former involves elaborate rituals and performances while the latter is fairly limited in terms of visitors’ engagement, and
exhibits more mass-tourism-like features. The analytical triad of  religious geography - specialists - performances is used to explore the range of management systems involved in the religious tourism of the two sites. It is found that the transformations of the religious tourism economy from a traditional pilgrimage practice bring in uneasy tensions: while religious actors actively participate in promotion and management of the religious tourism economy at local levels, they hardly shoulder responsibilities of addressing the negative environmental impacts. Thus, there is often an ‘institutional vacuum’ in dealing with both direct and indirect impacts of religious tourism. The paper shows how the reality of religious tourism is at odds with the state’s envisioned role since it largely operates beyond the state-policy framework. The paper argues that identifying the formal and informal systems in management can help to better address the multi-faceted impacts of religious tourism and contribute in developing measures for its sustainability.

Sufism is the mystical aspect of Islam. It began at the inception of Islam as an integrated internalized part of the religion but later, by the 12th Common Era (C.E.) developed into a sect. During the 13th-16th C.E. it flourished and spread leaving behind various physical structures including dervish (Sufi monks) lodges and large complexes such as the one surrounding the Suleymaniya Mosque in Istanbul which consists of a lodge, kitchen, library and other structures. These symbols of Sufism have become important parts of the cultural heritage of the cities to which they belong. Many of them are witnessing a steep addition in visitor numbers caused by the significant growth in the number of people that are turning their attention towards the theory and practice of spirituality.
Countries worldwide, especially India are capitalizing on this rising preference by specifically marketing destinations that are linked to Sufism. The paper aims to explore how the increase in Sufism-Tourism interface can benefit both the tourist and the heritage structure. Case studies of three Sufi shrines at Ajmer (India), Konya (Turkey) and Fes (Morocco) have been considered.

Santurismo (Santeria + Turismo) refers to the popular formula of Afro-Cuban religions and tourism and initially served the Cuban government in the 1960s to promote Santeria as a folkloric product of Cuban identity through staged performances in touristic surroundings. Gradually, it became a coping strategy by Cuban people to deal with political and economic hardship during the Special Period in the 1990s which led to the emergence of Diplo-Santeria by so-called jinetero-santeros. While the continuous process of commodification of Cuban Santeria is marked by local social, economic and political influences, it also relates to current tendencies in comparable religious and spiritual phenomena at a global level. Afro-Cuban religions have worked their way up from a stigmatized and persecuted religious system to a widely valorized religion in the spiritual and touristic sphere. Over time, Santeria has proved to serve as a weapon for resistance and struggle, which is still ongoing in Cuban society today.

Published in Almatourism - Journal of Tourism, Culture and Territorial Development in 2018.

Most people today are born, grow, learn, work, and live in a world shaped by consumer culture, and this inevitably affects their search for religious and spiritual meaning in life. With this special issue, the Journal of Management, Spirituality and Religion extends an invitation to scholars in the field of marketing, consumer research and related disciplines to contribute to the journal with their best work on the marketing and consumption of spirituality and religion.

Monografia zawiera szczegółowe opisy 40. sanktuariów maryjnych na terenie województwa małopolskiego i podkarpackiego oraz Kraju Preszowskiego, w tym wszystkich 28. ośrodków położonych przy Szlaku Maryjnym – „Światło ze Wschodu”. W pierwszej części zaprezentowano 33 sanktuaria na terenie Polski, natomiast w drugiej – 7 ośrodków pielgrzymkowych w Kraju Preszowskim (Čirč, Gaboltov, Lewocza, Góra Zvir – Litmanová, Ľutina, Preszów i Wielki Szarysz). Warto podkreślić, że w 27. sanktuariach opisanych w pracy znajdują się wizerunki Najświętszej Maryi Panny koronowane „w imieniu i powagą Papieża”, po otrzymaniu stosownego zezwolenia od Kongregacji Kultu Bożego Stolicy Świętej, zaś w 3. sanktuariach czczone są obrazy koronowane na prawie diecezjalnym. Każde sanktuarium zostało przedstawione z uwzględnieniem rysu historycznego oraz położenia geograficznego, wraz z opisem głównego przedmiotu kultu, wyglądu i wyposażania świątyni, jak i obiektów w przestrzeni sakralnej. Ponadto w monografii zamieszczono również aktualne (stan na 1 października 2018 r.) informacje praktyczne dotyczące poszczególnych sanktuariów, takie jak: adres, kontakt telefoniczny i mailowy, strona internetowa, godziny Mszy św. i nabożeństw, terminy głównych odpustów i uroczystości. Aby ułatwić Czytelnikom dostęp do stron internetowych sanktuariów, wirtualnego zwiedzania oraz lokalizacji (współrzędnych geograficznych), podano także kody QR zawierające dane do tychże informacji. W części opisanych sanktuariów zamieszczono także charakterystyczną dla danego miejsca kultu modlitwę lub pieśń. Prezentację każdego sanktuarium kończy wykaz innych ośrodków pielgrzymkowych w okolicy.