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Sacred Journey: Tourism

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Encyclopedia of Tourism

In today’s secular world, the relationship between tourists and their beliefs plays a major role in influencing individuals’ pilgrimages to sacred sites. Their visitation patterns all depend on the strength of religious beliefs and the philosophical motives behind their travel to sacred sites. Since religious tourism journeys are motivated by a combination of sacred experience and tourism, it would be easy to characterize all such journeys as religious tourism. In this context, tourists engaged in a sacred journey are defined as “those who travel with the intention of undertaking spiritual practices and/or of attaining a sacred state or spiritual growth” (Norman 2011: 200), involving participation in both religious and nonreligious activities.

Framing Sacred Journey

When discussing the sacred journey, it is important to begin by acknowledging the work undertaken by scholars who have laid the foundations for the current understanding of this concept. The seminal contribution entitled Tou...

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References

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Correspondence to Razaq Raj .

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Raj, R. (2023). Sacred Journey: Tourism. In: Jafari, J., Xiao, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Tourism. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_165-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_165-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-01669-6

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Sacred Journey: Tourism
    Published:
    27 March 2024

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_165-2

  2. Original

    Sacred journey, tourism
    Published:
    14 September 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_165-1