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...
References
Aulet, S.S. 2020. Pilgrim’s motivations: A theoretical approach to pilgrimage as a peacebuilding tool. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage 8 (6): 7. https://doi.org/10.21427/zhad-9555. Available at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol8/iss6/7.
Cohen, E. 1979. A phenomenology of tourist experiences. Sociology 13: 179–201.
Graburn, N. 1989. Tourism: The sacred journey. In Hosts and guests: The anthropology of tourism, ed. V. Smith, 21–36. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Graburn, N. 2004. The Kyoto Tax Strike: Buddhism, Shinto, and Tourism in Japan. In Inserting Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Tourism, E. Badone and S. Roseman, eds., pp.125–139. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
Griffin, K., and R. Raj. 2017. The importance of religious tourism and pilgrimage: Reflecting on definitions, motives and data. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage 5 (3): 2. https://doi.org/10.21427/D7242Z. Available at: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijrtp/vol5/iss3/2.
Norman, A. 2011. Spiritual tourism: Travel and religious practice in western society. London: Continuum.
Sharma, V. 2013. Faith tourism: For a healthy environment and a more sensitive world. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage. http://arrow.dit.ie/ijrtp/vol1/iss1/3. 14 May 2014.
Turner, V., and E. Turner. 1978. Image and pilgrimage in Christian culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
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
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_165-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-01669-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-01669-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Sacred Journey: Tourism- Published:
- 27 March 2024
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_165-2
-
Original
Sacred journey, tourism- Published:
- 14 September 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01669-6_165-1