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The Still Center As Invented Topos: Static Pilgrimage In Aristasia, Rozalija Grace

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

After decades of challenges to many other definitional elements of ‘pilgrimage’, the centrality of motion and physical movement, whether literally enacted or realized virtually or through metaphor, remains largely uncontested. This paper examines practices of creative writing and home decorating among participants in the 1990s British subculture of ‘Aristasia’ (an outgrowth of a New Religious Movement known in the 1970s and 80s as ‘Madrianism’ but now more commonly referred to as ‘Filianism’) to argue that these practices functioned together for participants as static pilgrimages, accomplishing the same psychological and social tasks as traditional modes while suppressing even metaphorical concepts of …

Promoting Culinary Heritages As A Destination Attraction: A Case Study Of Ancient Temple Food ‘Mahaaprasaada’, Debasis Sahoo

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The growth of the food tourism segment in the last two decades has opened enormous scope for the marketing & promotion of ‘indigenous food products’ which otherwise remain limited to a particular region. These unique culinary products have created special segments like food & wine tourism, oleo tourism, whiskey tourism, beer tourism, and religious food tourism (like Halal & Kosher tourism). From this perspective ‘religious culinary heritage’ (practiced in ancient Hindu temples) shows a huge potential to be marketed as a tourism attraction, however, there are very few studies about this topic. Hence the present research identifies and analyses the …

A Study Of Mazuism Religious Tourism In Taiwan: An Example Of Dajia Jenn Lann Temple, Chang Hsiao-Ming, Lin Ching-Hui, Huang Yen-Chen

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Although the study of Mazuism has been popular among scholars, few have attempted to touch upon its religious tourist behaviour; however, as the purpose of their travel is to worship at the Mazu Temple, it is thus, a tourism destination. Therefore, from the perspective of religious sustainable operation, it is important to understand the tourist behavior patterns of religious tourists visiting Mazu Temple. The purpose of this study is to analyze the interrelationships between destination image, service quality, perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioural intention. This study is conducted with convenience sampling methods for tourists visiting Jenn Lann Temple in Dajia, …

Faith-Based Activities And Tourism: Exploiting The Possibilities For Religious Tourism Development In Anaocha Local Government Area, Nigeria, Emeka Okonkwo, Afamefuna Eyisi, Daniel Okoye

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Over the years, people have travelled for various motivations, giving birth to various types of specific interest tourism. The result is that various scholars have devoted their research to these specific areas of tourism. One such area of tourism that has grown exponentially is religious tourism (which some scholars also called spiritual tourism). This type of tourism explores travels motivated by the desire to visit places that inspire an individual’s belief system and to meet with people that share the same faith. Our study aims to understand the faith-based activities and religious centres in Anaocha Local Government Area (LGA) of …

Hindu Religious Motivations In Kashmir Valley, Hafizullah Dar

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This research is an endeavor to assess the Hindu religious motivations in Kashmir valley (in India). Using a quantitative research approach, 267 Hindu pilgrims in Kashmir valley were asked to complete questionnaire to carry out this study. One sample t test and linear correlation modus operandi were introduced for testing assumptions of the study. It is evident from the study context that for centuries, the Kashmir valley has cultivated the religious history of the Hindu faith, which is palpable from the many sacred Hindu sites across the Valley. The study results revealed that the Kashmir valley is a significantly important …

Volume 8(Iii) Table Of Contents, Kevin A. Griffin, Carlos Fernandes, Razaq Raj

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Management Of Pilgrimages In Lithuania: Resources, Stakeholders And Projects, Darius Liutikas

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The paper deals with the analysis of the pilgrimage management structure in Lithuania. The author presents the possible intervention framework of the pilgrimage’s management. The network of sacred places in Lithuania is the main resource of the religious tourism and pilgrimage. Analysis includes historic background, and contemporary novelties of the network of pilgrim sites. Travellers and stakeholders become more and more important in the management system. Various NGOs, as the Community of Lithuanian Pilgrims, play an important role in promoting pilgrim sites and pilgrimage. However, the main strategies and projects of the pilgrimage development in Lithuania are related to …

Anglican Experiences Of Mary: An English Perspective, Ruth Dowson (Rev.)

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper will explore the different traditions within the Church of England and their relationship with and attitudes towards the Blessed Virgin Mary. An autoethnographic element will narrate the author’s personal journey from charismatic evangelical sceptic, through ordination formation at an Anglo-Catholic monastery in West Yorkshire, to recent lived experiences at a small Italian village church festival.

The range of influences that shape the Church of England’s different traditions are perhaps unique compared to other denominations across the wider Christian faith, as the Anglican Church provides a home where happy-clappy, arm-waving charismatics and conservative bible-carrying evangelicals live alongside incense-brandishing Anglo-Catholics …

Eventization Of Religious Heritage: Case Studies And Practical Considerations, Ruth Dowson (Rev.)

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper examines the role that events can play in promoting religious tourism to a specific destination, in this case, Malta. It introduces practical examples that present creative ideas and demonstrate good practice that can be adopted and adapted for future planning in this context.

The dramatic growth of events in our way of life, evidenced by their expansion as part of popular culture, in Europe as elsewhere, is mirrored by an increase in events across many different aspects of life. However, it should be remembered that events emerged from seasonal, life cycle, and celebratory religious origins. Throughout human history, …

Encoding And Interpreting Neolithic Sites: World Heritage Temples In Malta, Marie Avellino-Stewart, Dane Munro

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Understanding and interpreting landscapes entails the encoding of symbols and deciphering of codes left on the palimpsest. Interpreting the Neolithic and more significantly Neolithic temple sites, is challenging and rife with contested meanings. The overall landscape is used by adherents of the New Religious Movements, on faith-based visits, and as an extension, spiritual fulfilment is sought in the Neolithic temples of Malta. The same landscape is then part of both the inner and outer pilgrimage in the context of not only the modern designer religions, but also of the established religions. This paper presents a case study of the Neolithic …

How Religious Tourism And Pilgrimages Can Be Beneficial To Communities, Julian C. Zarb

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper highlights the distinction between tourism as a socio-economic industry and tourism as a socio-cultural activity. The defining feature of sustainable , culturally supportive and beneficial tourism is community engagement. This paper proposes that the traditional aspects of hospitality, service and experience can be fully manifest if there is an engagement with local communities, which is thus manifest in immersion by the visitor in the activities around which events are based. This can only occur when development adopts a Community Based Tourism model. If locations such as Malta wish to develop religious tourism to the benefit of all, this …

Local Faith-Based Tourism And Volunteers Within Related Entities: A Maltese Perspective, Oliver Cassar

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In 2017 a research study was carried out by the Cultural Commission of the Pinto Philharmonic Society (Soċjetà Filarmonika Pinto Banda San Sebastjan) of Qormi, Malta. This study aimed to evaluate the perceptions of volunteers that are active in different non-governmental organizations within different Christian parishes around Malta and Gozo. Within the research confraternities in diffe rent parish, local band clubs and chivalric orders had been identified as particular entities having good potential to enhance the niche market formation for faith-based tourism. Although volunteers recognise the positive inputs from tourism, the research also discusses local traditions. Further discussed is the …

Editorial: Conference Proceedings, Niche Market Formation For Faith-Based Tourism, Dane Munro

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Volume 8(Ii) Table Of Contents, Dane Munro, Kevin A. Griffin, Razaq Raj, Carlos Fernandes

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Peregrinatio: Anever-Ending Pilgrimage To An Unspecified End, Bernice Lamb-Senechal

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

To most modern-day thinkers a pilgrimage entails a journey to a sacred place. Thus, the primary purpose of the voyage is to reach a locale that holds special meaning for the pilgrim. Typically, the end destination is a place where a significant familial, historical or religious event has occurred. In contrast to this contemporary understanding of pilgrimage, some Irish Christian monks of late antiquity undertook sacred journeys of an indefinite duration with no express terminus in mind. Furthermore, these monastic sojourners exiled themselves from their homeland vowing never to return to kith and kin. This working paper explores the practice …

Resurrection Of A Heretic Religion Through Pilgrimage: The Cathar Case Study, Pierre Fournie

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Six hundred ninety-eight years have passed since Guilhem Bélibaste, the last known Perfect or Albigensian was burned at stake in Villerouge-Termenès. His execution, in 1321, ended the official presence of the Cathars – who preferred to call themselves Good-Men and Good-Women- in the South of France. The Catholic Church, feeling that the influence of this alleged heretic movement threatened its power, started procedures around 1147 to at first control the Cathars peacefully, but failing to do so, later felt it had to destroy them, by means of crusades and the Inquisition.

For many people, the intangible and tangible remains of …

Pilgrimaging Through Time: The Theoretical Implications Of Continuing Journeys On The Shikoku Henro, John Shultz

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Fantastic growth in the field of pilgrimage studies raises real questions about whether our theories and methods are up to the task of describing increasingly diverse phenomena. Herein, I maintain that the future of the field lies not with articulating some vague generalisations in an attempt to somehow maintain universals, but to consciously ponder the variability found with respect to pilgrimage. I argue that pilgrimage analysis needs to be more ground-up with a methodological focus on how key variables shape the fundamental meaning of pilgrimage. I demonstrate such methods by looking at the relativity of time in the context of …

The Processes, Effects And Therapeutics Of Pilgrimage Walking The St. Olav Way, Nanna Natalia Jørgensen, John Eade, Tor-Johan Ekeland, Catherine A.N. Lorentzen

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage walking is increasingly sought as self-therapy for different mental, physical and spiritual ailments, sudden life changes, crossroads or challenges. However, pilgrimage walking as therapy is largely an unexplored ground within health science / care / interventions notwithstanding millennia of human experience. To unfold the nature and add to the knowledge about pilgrimage walking as therapy, this article explores the health-related processes (as experienced mentally, physically, spiritually, socially and in nature), the after-effects (on daily life, behaviour and future actions) and the therapeutic mechanisms (that bring forth these processes and effects) involved in walking the St. Olav Way across Norway. …

Perspectives On Pilgrimage To Folk Deities, Rajshree Dhali

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The title ‘Perspectives on Pilgrimage to folk deities’ has been chosen to underline the pattern of the alternative religious spaces and their transformation over the centuries which is not yet explored much. The evolution and shaping of folk cults, associated religious processes, and their incorporation into high ritual Hinduism forms a very dynamic part of the cultural and the religious history of India. My paper explores the pilgrimage to Ramdevra in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan, India, where the main shrine of the folk deity Ramdev is located. He is a popular folk deity of the erstwhile untouchable communities and …

Negotiating With The Sacred Other: The Ancient Mechanisms Of The Personal Vow Practice, Mirela Hrovatin

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

By questioning the anthropological definition of vows as instrumental prayers, which has been generally accepted since William Christian (1989) introduced it, the paper will discuss the notion of a vow as a personal prayer in the effort to expand it beyond the mere request for a miracle or fulfilment of a pilgrim’s or believer’s wish. The votive prayer is mentioned already in the Bible (Deut. 23) as a somewhat problematic way of communicating with God due to a promise it contains. Based on the Amir Mashiach’s (2014) interpretation of prayers as performative utterances in the Jewish tradition and Radoslav Katičić's …

Place And Space In Walking Pilgrimage, Ken Wilson

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

What kind of experience of territory is produced by walking pilgrimages? Do they generate experiences of place or space as with the definitions provided by Yi-Fu Tuan in Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience? This paper addresses these questions by considering Tuan’s distinction between space and place and various attempts at deconstructing that binary opposition. It looks at three texts about walking that seem to turn space into place--Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain, Thelma Poirier’s Rock Creek, and Iain Sinclair’s London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25--before considering the author's own failure to turn space into place during an …

New Directions In Sacred Journeys Research, Ian S. Mcintosh, Claudia Schlee, Dane Munro

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Volume 8(I) Table Of Contents, Ian S. Mcintosh, Claudia Schlee, Dane Munro, Kevin A. Griffin, Razaq Raj, Carlos Fernandes

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Unconditional Quantile Regression Analysis Of Uk Inbound Tourist Expenditures, Abhijit Sharma, Richard Woodward, Stefano Grillini

Articles

Using International Passenger Survey (2017) data, this paper employs unconditional quantile regression (UQR) to analyse the determinants of tourist expenditure amongst inbound tourists to the United Kingdom. UQR allows us to estimate heterogeneous effects at any quantile of the distribution of the dependent variable. It overcomes the econometric limitations of ordinary least squares and quantile regression based estimates typically used to investigate tourism expenditures. However, our results reveal that the effects of our explanatory variables change across the distribution of tourist expenditure. This has important implications for those tasked with devising policies to enhance the UK’s tourist flows and expenditures.

Review Of: The Pilgrimage Of Egeria. A New Translation Of The ‘Itinerarium Egeriae’ With Introduction And Commentary, By A. Mcgowan & P.F. Bradshaw, George D. Greenia

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Review Of: Religious Tourism In Asia: Tradition And Change Through Case Studies And Narratives, By S. Yasuda, R. Raj & K. Griffin, Daniel H. Olsen

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Review Of : Religious Journeys In India: Pilgrims, Tourists And Travelers, By A.M. Pinkney & J. Whalen-Bridge, Amitabh Upadhya

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

Factors Conditioning The Creation And Development Of A Network Of Camino De Santiago Routes In Visegrád Group Countries, Franciszek Mróz, Łukasz Mróz, Alfred Krogmann

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The aim of the research was to explore the factors conditioning the origin and development of selected sections of the Way of St. James within the territory of Visegrad Group countries.[1] The cognitive aim of the research was to determine the correctness of the spatial route of the Way of St. James, as well as to present the phenomenon of dynamic development of Routes of St. James in the said countries.

The creation of the first sections of the Way of St. James in V4 countries was influenced by a number of geographical, historical, religious, economic, political, and socio-cultural factors. …

Creative Escapism And The Camino De Santiago, Berenika Seryczyńska

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The phenomenon of escapism, extensively analyed in the key mechanism of escape into the world of illusion and imagination in numerous sociological and psychological studies, has not yet been researched from a theological perspective or described in the context of pilgrimage. Nevertheless, the existing studies encourage this type of reflection, indicating that escapism seems to be one of the ways to solve social problems by turning towards religiousness. This is the case for pilgrims on their journey to the tomb of St. James the Apostle in Santiago de Compostela. The studies of pilgrims reveal the escapist motivations behind the decision …

The Way Of Saint James: A Sacred Space?, Adeline Rucquoi

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

An increasing number of pilgrims make their way each year to the Sanctuary of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. For many, the Way is almost more important than the goal to be achieved, that is, the tomb of the apostle. Can the space thus covered, sometimes taking weeks or months, be considered ‘sacred’? Undoubtedly, the pilgrimage to Compostela unites space and time. But it adds a particular symbolic dimension to them that makes it the quest for the elsewhere, the other and the absolute. As an image of the ‘pilgrimage of human life’, the whole formed by the apostolic sanctuary …