Religious tourism
Spiritual tourism is a collective term for traveling with spiritual, religious or ecclesiastical content that has been included in both the travel industry as well as in pastoral theology against the background of an increase of pilgrimage and monastery tours.
Term establishment
Spiritual tourism is a relatively recent term, which was probably first used in 2005 by the New Zealand Baptist Pastor Steve Taylor. The Ministry of Economic Affairs of Saxony- Anhalt designed under the direction of Christian Antz in parallel, a project to combine tourist offers with religious and ecclesiastical content. Thus, the term used in the 1980s and 1990s in science and practice of the religious tourism should be expanded. A, edited by Antz and Birgit Neumann Becker investigation " Spiritual Tourism in Saxony- Anhalt" led to the interdisciplinary study conference Sacred places, sacred spaces, pilgrimage routes of the Catholic Thomas More Academy in 2006, the term Spiritual tourism both in theology and in the tourism industry one. This started mainly in German-speaking in church and tourist public the technical discussion topic and concept of spiritual tourism. At the conference, spirituality and Tourism of the German Society of Tourism Research, 2009 Eichstätt, the term has become firmly established. In the English-speaking world had a conference that was held from 5 to 7 April 2006, the University of Lincoln, a similar effect.
Definition
According to the definition of the Marburg art historian Karin Berke man is spiritual tourism " a spiritual and physical journeys, undertaken by the people looking for experiences of transcendence, meaning in life and Ratings " is. A similar definition was provided by the Catholic theologian Herbert Poensgen. According to him, Spiritual Tourism " that form of travel, recreation and unclamping, which feeds on the desire for post-material values , according to expectations of salvation, wholeness ideas and a desire for the supernatural. " In contrast, the Cologne market psychologist Christopher B. Melchers Spiritual Tourism means far more general than a " Family- Will with the Special ", which span from the family photo in front of the statue of a famous personality extends to the receipt of a sense of life.
Classification
A scientific analysis and classification of the subject encounters many obstacles, though the assessment of travel motivation plays a central role. It is almost impossible to ask a traveler to the degree of his religious motivation, to determine whether a religious or non- religious tourist is. The majority of the pilgrims who have walked the Camino de Santiago, arriving in Santiago de Compostela, indicates that we have done this hike on religious grounds. It will also find people who are not easy to classify a pilgrimage from other motives. It can be, however, in the various travel modes determine differences.
Trip Types
First monastery vacations longer stays in spiritual centers such as monasteries or communities in which consciously break with the outside world is desired and spiritual activities such as mediation and discussion groups are in demand.
2 pilgrimages Walks are undertaken in small groups with spiritual motifs individually consciously or. There are deliberately preferred simple pilgrim quarters that are different from commercial offerings. A special importance is Europe's routes to Santiago.
3 pilgrimages Traditional single-or multi -day walks that are undertaken in the group, for example, with the parish church to legally recognized places of pilgrimage. They are annually recurring, often with the same route.
4 church visits The most important trip type in the spiritual tourism motivations of travelers are particularly heterogeneous in a church visit. Religion, history, culture, architectural interest come together.
5 Religious Festivals Traditional celebrations with a religious character.
6 sites with historical and religious character Places, often birthing centers that are closely linked to the life and work of a person who was known in the religious and spiritual sense.
7 trips to ecclesiastical major events Travel undertaken for religious events such as Catholics days, Church Conferences, World Youth Day or the Community of Taizé European Meeting.
8 cemetery tourism Trips to cemeteries where famous people are buried. The best known example is the burial place of the musician Jim Morrison in the cemetery Cimetière du Père Lachaise in Paris.
Trend or tradition?
The religious travel today can be seen as the forerunner of the tourist trip as this trip type, in many cases was different than trade or war travel of a voluntary nature. Although it was quite common to prescribe pilgrimages as penance in the Middle Ages, although it was usually the option of staying home. Especially in the 13th century took to pilgrimages. During this time, Europe had more than 10,000 places of pilgrimage. With the Reformation found religious travel in the Protestant areas have become an end, but with the Counter-Reformation flourished especially in Catholic Bavaria many important places of pilgrimage back to the way Altötting or Vierzehnheiligen.
Today, many people are seeking distance and reflection when traveling with spiritual added value. Besides pilgrimages not only on the Camino also stays in the monastery of a growing group are in demand. This is in addition to the elderly, increasingly, to young people, couples and families who stand with both feet on the ground and looking for the necessary distance to their otherwise very hectic life or after a blow or a life crisis assistance. Old customs and festivals revived and pilgrimages are revived. Overall, a trend can be observed, but also traditionally the spiritual journey is rooted
Classification
Spiritual tourism must be regarded as a separate trip type. While there are elements of cultural tourism or walking holiday, but can not be transferred 1:1 this. The structure of the spiritual journey has a strong heterogeneity in terms of demand and supply. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish religious from a non- religious journey. Important elements include, inter alia, the sponsorship of the offers that awareness of the journey and the specificity of the host - host relationship, which is not typically dominated by commerce and thereby differs from conventional tourist attractions.
Criticism
On the Wittenberg Study Conference, the theologian Herbert Poensgen expressed critical of the tendency to place bids of spiritual travel as an added value with regard to geographical or cultural space. This " delocalization " would have a loss of originality result. At a meeting of the Working Group Thuringian Church and tourism has been criticized that action in the spiritual tourism are often guided by extraneous interests and the terms Camino de Santiago pilgrims decontextualized would be used as a public appeal brands.