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Ignatius Of Loyola’S Traces In Manresa. A New Incentive For Religious Tourism?, Joan Carles Llurdés, Francesc Romagosa

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The city of Manresa, located in the heart of Catalonia, has spent years trying to make profitable its cultural and urban heritage as a strategy for a better tourism positioning among other mid-sized cities that are competing for attracting tourists in an increasingly competitive global context. However, for various reasons the city has not been able to earn a place in Catalonia’s tourism scene, and it still remains in a preliminary tourism development stage. In this sense, the latest initiative taken by the city council has to do with its religious heritage, through the project ‘Manresa 2022’, which consists of …

Streets Of Orthodoxy: Developing Religious Tourism In The Mount Paiko Area, Central Macedonia, Greece, Fotis E. Kilipiris, Athanasios Dermetzopoulos

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religion and faith have always been strong motivations affecting society's evolution and people's actions. Additionally, religion and pilgrimage in contemporary societies have, among others, considerable economic implications. Religious tourism, an emerging form of tourism activity for many destinations, plays an important role for local economies. Rural economies can rely upon religious tourism as a supplementary source of income in many environments, to supplement agricultural income.

This paper, addresses issues regarding religious tourism development in a mountainous area in Greece, rich in religious as well as cultural and natural tourist attractions. The paper also highlights the role of the church as …

The Role Of Religious Tourism In Creating Destination Image: The Case Of Konya Museum, Murat Kocyi̇gi̇t

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The image of a destination comprises perceptions acquired by individuals, oriented to the specifications of a destination. Touristic destinations are, in order to be able to attract more tourists in the competition environment, in charge of developing marketing efforts, making the best of positioning their products and services together with their economic, cultural and social dimensions in the intelligence of tourists. In this direction, the aim of this study is to determine the destination image perceived by tourists who travel with the purpose of religious tourism when they visit to Konya Museum (Mawlana Jalaladdin Rumi). The data for the study …

The Destination Marketing Development Of Religious Tourism In Uzbekistan, Bakhtiyor Navruz-Zoda, Zebiniso Navruz-Zoda

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Uzbekistan has great potential to develop pilgrimage tourism based on the spiritual culture of the Islamic religion. Destination marketing development of religious tourism, based on Sufism is an innovative direction for the organisation of pilgrimage tourism. In this paper, the dual nature of this kind of religious tourism is revealed to comprise: first a pilgrimage nature, that consists of the Sufi pilgrimage to Sufi shrines to perform ritual and; secondly a religious-cognitive nature, whereby, a major segment of travellers can be Muslim, non-Sufis and scientists, researchers, teachers, tutors and other categories of tourists who are interested in the learning of …

Religious Tourism In The Hill Of Tepexpan: A New Research Approach - From Dedifferentiation, Víctor Mora-Torres, Rocío Serrano-Barquín, Héctor Favila-Cisneros, Carolina Serrano-Barquín

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This theoretical and methodological paper presents research undertaken to comprehend the social dynamic of religious tourism in a traditional sanctuary located in the Hill of Tepexpan, Mexico. Visitor experience, as tourist or pilgrim, has been little studied in Mexican religious tourism literature, which has focused mainly on quantitative and economics aspects. For this reason, a more holistic and comprehensive way to understand the phenomenon is desirable, especially in destinations that receive a variety of visitors with different practices and motivations.

The Tepexpan Hill Sanctuary has been a sacred place since Colonial times for two ethnic groups: Mazahuas and Otomíes. Their …

Exploring The Motives Of Religious Travel By Applying The Ahp Method – The Case Study Of Monastery Vujan (Serbia), Sanja Božic, Bojana Spasojević, Miroslav D. Vujičić, Igor Stamenkovic

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religious tourism is considered as the oldest form of people’s travel. Thousands of years ago people travelled miles led by religious motives. Even though pilgrimage is older than most of the other tourism forms, research on the major motives for religious travel still occupies scientific attention. Vujan Monastery represents one of the main riddles among religious tourism researchers in Serbia. After the mysterious healing of Serbian Patriarch Pavle in 1946 who suffered from tuberculosis, this monastery became one of the most famous sacred places for orthodox Christians. The principle aim of this paper is to propose a new way for …

Demographic Characteristics Influencing Religious Tourism Behaviour: Evidence Form A Central-Eastern-European Country, Anna Irimias, Ariel Mitev, Gabor Michalko

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Although religious tourism and pilgrimage have been widely studied there is very limited research that explores the peculiarities in attitude and behaviour among tourists with different demographic factors. The present exploratory study enhances the discussion on perception of religious tourism behaviour. Specifically, eleven statements on attitude and behaviour were explored among 345 Hungarians with different socio-demographic backgrounds. The results show that there are significant variations between senior and young travellers: seniors see as important, the educational purposes and feelings of national identity related to sacred sites while these are less motivating for the young. The frequency of participating in religious …

Shrine Pilgrimage (Ziyārat) In Turco-Iranian Cultural Regions, Mehdi Ebadi

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Academic studies, dedicated to various aspects of religiously motivated travel have increased steadily, especially in recent years. Despite the huge amount of publications related to tourism and religious pilgrimage, there is still a gap between abstract theory and empirical research. Studies devoted to pilgrimage in the developing countries generally, and Islamic regions in particular are rather few in number in spite of its socio-economic importance and widespread practices. The present work tries to address this relative lack of attention and will shed more light on the tradition of shrine pilgrimage (known as ziyārat) in Turco-Iranian cultural milieu that is almost …

Religious Tourism And Italian Sacred Mounts: Experiences Of Networking And Co-Operation At A Unesco Site, Raffaella Afferni, Carla Ferrario

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

A Sacred Mount is a historical holy site and former pilgrimage attraction. It is a devotional complex located on a mountain, and composed of a series of chapels and shrines in which scenes from the life of Christ, the Virgin Mary or the saints are represented through paintings and sculptures. In 2003 the Sacred Mounts of Piedmont and Lombardy were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List being considered as representative of something that can be understood, in part, through visitor interactions with the areas in which they are located (see Di Giovine, 2009:208).

The visitors to Sacred Mounts are: …