Religious tourism, spiritual tourism, sacred tourism, or faith tourism, is a type of
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
with two main subtypes:
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
, meaning travel for religious or spiritual purposes, and the viewing of religious monuments and artefacts, a branch of sightseeing.
Types
Religious tourism has been characterised in different ways by researchers. Gisbert Rinschede distinguishes these by duration, by group size, and by social structure.
Juli Gevorgian proposes two categories that differ in their motivation, namely "
pilgrimage
A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...
tourism" for spiritual reasons or to participate in religious rites, and "church
tourism
Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...
" to view monuments such as cathedrals. The Christian priest Frank Fahey writes that a pilgrim is "always in danger of becoming a tourist", and vice versa since travel always in his view upsets the fixed order of life at home, and identifies eight differences between the two:
Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage is spiritually- or religiously motivated travel, sometimes over long distances; it has been practised since antiquity and in several of the world's religions. The world's largest mass religious assemblage takes place in India at the
Kumbh Mela, which attracts over 120 million pilgrims. Other major pilgrimages include the annual
Hajj to Mecca, required once in a Muslim's life.
Religious sightseeing
Religious sightseeing can be motivated by any of several kinds of interest, such as religion, art, architecture, history, and personal ancestry.
People can find holy places interesting and moving, whether they personally are religious or not. Some, such as the churches of
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, offer
fine architecture and
major artworks.
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
, for example, has as its main religious tourism attraction the
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, internationally known by the phenomenon of
Marian apparitions. Others are important to world religions:
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
holds a central place in
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in th ...
,
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...
Hinduismand
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
. Others again may be both scenic and important to one religion, like the
Way of Saint James in Spain, but have been adopted by non-religious people as a personal challenge and indeed as a journey of
self-discovery.
Religious tourism in India can take many forms, including
yoga tourism; the country has sites important to
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
, Islam,
Sikhism
Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...
and
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
, as well as magnificent architecture and, for some travellers, the attraction of
orientalism.
Japan too offers beautiful religious places from Buddhist temples to
Shinto
Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shint ...
shrines.
Secular pilgrimage
A category intermediate between pilgrims belonging to a major world religion and pure tourism is the modern concept of secular pilgrimage to places such as the Himalayas felt to be in some way special or even sacred, and where the travel is neither purely pious, nor purely for pleasure, but is to some degree "compromised".
For example,
New Age believers may travel to such "spiritual hotspots" with the intention of healing themselves and the world. They may practise rituals involving (supposedly) leaving their bodies, possession by spirits (
channelling), and recovery of past life memories. The travel is considered by many scholars as transcendental, a life learning process or even a self-realization metaphor.
See also
*
Devotional articles
*
Christian tourism
*
Halal tourism
*
Kosher tourism
References
Further reading
*
Ralf van Bühren
Ralf van Bühren (born 3 February 1962) is a German art historian, architectural historian, church historian, and theologian, who teaches at the Pontifical University of Santa Croce in Rome. His art history lectures are open to students of US un ...
, Lorenzo Cantoni, and Silvia De Ascaniis (eds.),
Special issue on “Tourism, Religious Identity and Cultural Heritage”', in ''Church, Communication and Culture'' 3 (2018), pp. 195–418
* Razaq Raj and Nigel D. Morpeth, ''Religious tourism and pilgrimage festivals management: an international perspective'', CABI, 2007
* Dallen J. Timothy and Daniel H. Olsen, ''Tourism, religion and spiritual journeys'', Routledge, 2006
* University of Lincoln (Department of tourism and recreation), Tourism – the spiritual dimension. Conference. Lincoln (Lincolnshire) 2006
* N. Ross Crumrine and E. Alan Morinis, ''Pilgrimage in Latin America'', Westport CT 1991
External links
(history from ancient times)
(on Christian sacred places such as
St Peter's, Rome,
St John's cave on Patmos, and the grotto at
Lourdes)
CBS Early Show: Rest, relaxation, & religion(on
James Dobson and
Focus on the Family in Colorado)
Washington Post: Seeking answers with field trips in faith(on
Our Lady of Medjugorje
Our Lady of Medjugorje ( hr, Međugorska Gospa), also called Queen of Peace ( hr, Kraljica mira) and Mother of the Redeemer ( hr, Majka Otkupiteljica), is the title given to visions of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which began in 1981 to six Herz ...
, Bosnia)
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Religious practices
Types of tourism