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ATLAS-Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Research Group
1st Expert Meeting, Fátima, Portugal, 23-27 April 2003
Organized and sponsored by ATLAS,
the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo
and the Tourism Board of Leiria-Fátima
In the last few years there has been considerable growth of literature
related to cultural tourism. Definitions vary due to the wide scope of
meanings implied by the term "culture". The World Tourism Organization
(1985) defines cultural tourism as "movements of persons for essentially
cultural motivations such as study tours, performing arts and cultural
tours, travel to festivals and other events, visits to sites and monuments,
travel to study nature, folklore or art, and pilgrimages". Fladmark (1994)
suggests that cultural tourism may be defined as that activity which enables
people to explore or experience the different way of life of other people,
reflecting social customs, religious traditions and intellectual ideas of a
cultural heritage which may be unfamiliar".
In spite of the fact that "cultural tourists" have been common in Europe for
hundreds of years, it is only in the last two decades that cultural and
heritage tourism have been identified as specific tourism markets (Richards,
1996). Bywater (1993) extends this segmentation by including a category of
cultural tourist as the spiritually motivated tourist and Murray and Graham
(1997) distinguish between the differing tourist sub-markets and their
contrasting and conflicting motivations of demands of pilgrims and tourist.
Results of the ATLAS Cultural Tourism Survey of 2000 revealed that education
and experience has led to a fracturing of demand of the cultural tourist.
Thus, the debate is open now because the cultural tourist is becoming more
discriminating, specialized and discerning, and looking for the "self
improvement" activities (mental component). The religious sites are now in
the cultural arena and what needs to happen is:
1. to research the visitors specifically at religious sites and find out
more about their motivations and needs;
2. to address the issues facing the administrators, be it falling visitor
numbers, use by tourists as an incidental holiday experience conflicting
with the interests of the pilgrims;
3. to address the way forward on how to cater for the 21century pilgrims
without conflicting with the devout pilgrimage.
Lefeuvre (1980) described religious tourism as " a system that encompasses a
range of holy places, from the grandest cathedral to the smallest chapel,
the service facilities associated with them and the spectrum of visitors
from the devout to the secular "Two key elements of religious tourism are
shrines and pilgrimage sites. For Turner (1989), "shrines are usually place
where a particular relic or image is venerated. Pilgrimage sites are
believed to be place where miracles once happened, still happen and may
happen again." Nolan and Nolan (1989) conceptualise the universe of
religious tourism attractions into:
(a) Pilgrim Shrines (Shrines of relatively low value as tourist
attractions, Shrines of high value, Shrines noted for colourful pilgrimage.
Shrines combining touristic importance, pilgrimage festivals and cultic
significance);
(b) Religious tourist attractions are places where secularly orientated
tourists and recreationists, religious tour groups visit;
(c) Sites of Religious festivals
For destinations, cultural tourists offer solutions to problems of
seasonality, wet weather, the trend towards more active holidays, more
environmentally sensitive holidays and more short breaks. For the
administrators of the large better visited shrines, there is an increasing
awareness that tourists have different needs and expectations from pilgrims.
The tourists are seeking something or they would not be there. Tourists are
viewed as potential pilgrims. For example, the only purely penitential
pilgrimage site in Europe, St. Patrick's Purgatory (Ireland), is soliciting
pilgrims in a 21st century way- by targeting those that want to alleviate
executive stress and to have a spiritual experience. The issue of
decreasing number of pilgrims is affecting religious sites. Undoubtedly,
the relationship between cultural tourism, spiritual tourism, and religious
tourism are based on religious resources common to all three.
ATLAS proposes to increase the relatively little research that has been done
in this category and the relationship to religious tourism by launching the
Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Research Group. The 1st Expert Meeting is
to be held at one of the world´s most renowned religious and pilgrimage
site-Fátima, Portugal. ATLAS welcomes the submission of papers on issues
relating to the conference theme. Paper abstracts should be no more than 500
words, and should clearly outline the aims, content and relevance of the
paper to be presented. Abstracts should be submitted by March 5th 2003,
preferably in electronic form to [log in to unmask] The abstracts will
be subject to a double blind review by the Scientific Committee. The
Tourism Board of Leiria-Fátima will publish the conference proceedings and
sponsor local expenses (airport transfers, accommodation, meals and social
programme) for the first 20delegates to submit their papers by March 31st
2003.
Scientific Committee
Carlos Fernandes, Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo (Portugal)
Francisco Vieira, Tourism Board of Leiria-Fátima (Portugal)
Frances McGettigan, Regional Technical College Athlone (Ireland)
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