In April 2003, the European Association for Tourism and Leisure Education Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Special Interest Group held their 1st Expert Meeting at Fátima in Portugal, ‘one of Europe’s foremost apparitional shrines’. A wide range of papers were presented at this meeting, to stimulate discussion and to: (i) consider the research implications of gaining greater understanding of the motivations and needs of visitors at religious sites; (ii) how administrators at religious sites cater for the needs of holidaymakers and pilgrims; and (iii) how ‘21st century’ (New) pilgrims interact with devout pilgrims.
Whilst there was common agreement amongst a number of contributors that the term ‘religious space’ ‘was taken to refer to both the confined space within a shrine, sanctuary, cathedral, etc., as well as the religious space as a pilgrim travels through on his/her pilgrimage’, there emerged an eclectic range of potential areas for future research. This ranged from the need to explore and refine the sacred–profane continuum to the role of guides, interpreters and interpretation at religious sites. In a sense, what emerged was the eclectic nature of the study of religious tourism and pilgrimages, not least because of the complex and changing relationships between visitors and the visited on a global stage; and indeed, on the one hand, a strengthening of religious devotion and on the other the fragmentation of religion into new, quasi-religious and secular movements.
There are a range of historical examples of linkages between religion and travel. Sherratt and Hawkins characterized Islam as a ‘vital, vivacious and expanding religion’, in which Muhammed’s migration (the Hijra) from Mecca to Medina in AD 622 was the genesis of the rapid spread of Islam throughout the world.
Embodied within the five pillars of Islam is the notion of pilgrimage and the obligation that, once in a lifetime, Muslims should undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca (‘if able to do so’). Contrasted with this is formation of a Nonconformist church through the emergence of the Methodism in England that saw John Wesley, its organizer, travelling over 250,000 miles on horseback to preach sermons (Sherrat and Hawkins, 1972). However, what is emerging is a body of academic literature that recognizes a systematization of religion, pilgrimage and tourism.
Nolan and Nolan (1992) described a European religious system as being comprised of religious attractions, pilgrimage shrines (both touristic and nontouristic) and festivals. They highlighted the interaction between ‘pious’ pilgrims and secular tourists acknowledging that: ‘Regardless of their motivations, all visitors to these attractions require some level of services, ranging from providing for the most basic human needs to full commercial development that rivals the most secular resort’. Nolan and Nolan suggested that: ‘At a well-visited shrine, visitors on any given day may represent a gradient from very pious and seriously prayerful, to purely secular and basically uninformed about the religious meaning of the place’.
Although visitors representing these extremes usually exhibit different behaviours, there is no dichotomy between pilgrims and tourists: ‘Many fall into the range of intermediate categories’. They suggested that, despite the potential incompatibility of these different visitors, it is possible to manage potential conflicts.
Religious Tourism and the Modern Quest for the Unfamiliar
