Topical Issues in the Field of Religious Tourism. Current Challenges

Abstract

The number of political and cultural shifts in Ukraine during the last years have caused the rise of the interest in Ukraine as a place of attraction for religious tourists. As a result of Ukraine's rapid withdrawal from the religious and ideological milieu of the Moscow Patriarchate, getting a Tomos and the creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula (where a fairly high percentage of Muslim believers (Tatars) live and are persecuted), the gradual integration of (mostly) Orthodox Ukraine into the European Union (where most countries profess Catholicism and Protestantism) attract the attention of the European community to Ukraine more than ever in the religious sphere. Today this can become a favorable environment for the world’s getting acquainted with the Ukrainian religious culture, with the promotion of its spiritual heritage, which has been created for thousands of years, for creating a general image of the country as a tourist one. According to the World Tourism Organization, at least 200 million people go pilgrimage annually. Pilgrimage is also gaining popularity in Ukraine every year. The specificity of pilgrimage is determined by the features of the religious consciousness of believers, which in turn is associated with the nature of religious doctrine and cult practices of specific regional destinations. Thus, in the context of the development of modern state tourism policy, once lost traditions of pilgrimage are gaining significant growth in the country.