The Dynamics of Religious Tourism. Case Study: Romania
Abstract
In recent years, world tourism has diversified its forms of manifestation on an international level, trying to capitalize on the most valuable cultural and religious objectives of a country's cultural and religious heritage.
I chose such a theme because we are witnessing a revival of this form of tourism. It is thousands and thousands of years old, and now it is gaining momentum with the help of another vision of religious and pilgrimage tourism. Its new dimensions make it an attractive field for tourism agencies, national and local authorities, tour operators, transport companies, universities, public administrations, those dealing with general and specific infrastructure, as well as others.
In Romania, with the collapse of the communist system, the presence of religious topics in the media discourse increased significantly. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenon of pilgrimage, and often this information ends up being the most important news of the day, on many communication channels. Pilgrimages are considered to be important religious events, heavily mediatized and very popular among the faithful, but very little researched. The present work aims to look towards these unexplored areas and study the phenomenon of pilgrimage, to analyze the economic dynamics of the religious phenomenon. Some of these fields are intensively researched abroad, where there is a significant specialized literature, while in Romania, these fields are less investigated.
There are many studies in the field, at the international level, but at the national level, the phenomenon is less debated. This is the reason why the proposed case study and the examples used in the paper investigate the Romanian religious realities.
In this article we aim to create both an image of religious tourism today and its dynamics in the near future (the evolution of the number of tourists and the economic side of this phenomenon).
References
[2] Bona K., Seongseop (Sam) K. and King, B. 2020. Religious tourism studies: evolution, progress, and future prospects. Tourism Recreation Research, 45(2):1 85-203. DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2019.1664084
[3] Butler, R., and Suntikul, W. 2019. Tourism and Religion: Origins, Interactions and Issues, 2019 Channel View Publications Ltd, Bristol/Blue Ridge Summit. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21832/9781845416461-005
[4] Capets, R. 2018. The impact of pilgrimage upon the faith and faith-based practice of Catholic educators (Doctor of Philosophy (College of Education)). University of Notre Dame Australia. Available at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses/219
[5] Chhorn, T. 2018 Tourism Demand and Exogenous Exchange Rate in Cambodia: A Stochastic Seasonal Arimax Approach. Theoretical and Practical Research in the Economic Fields, 1(17): 5-16. DOI:https://doi.org/10.14505/tpref.v9.1(17).01
[6] Collins-Kreiner, N., and Kliot, N. 2000. Pilgrimage tourism in the Holy Land: The behavioural characteristics of Christian pilgrims. GeoJournal, 50(1): 55–67. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41147449
[7] Collins-Kreiner, N. 2020. Pilgrimage tourism-past, present and future rejuvenation: a perspective article. Tourism Review, 75 (1): 145-148. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-04-2019-0130
[8] Dallen J. T. 2020. Cultural Heritage and Tourism, Channel View Publications 2020, DOI:https://doi.org/10.21832/9781845417727-022
[9] Dejan Iliev. 2020. The evolution of religious tourism: Concept, segmentation and development of new identities. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 45: 131-140, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.07.012.
[10] Durán-Sánchez, A., Álvarez-García, J., de la Cruz del Río-Rama, M. and Oliveira, C. 2018. Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage: Bibliometric Overview. Religions. DOI: 10.3390/rel9090249
[11] Fakhrutdinova, L.R. et al. 2017, Religious tourism in the tourism system, Revista San Gregorio, No.20, Special Edition. December (96-103). Available at: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/6236954.pdf
[12] Giusca, M.C., Gheorghilas, A., and Dumitrache, L. 2018. Assessment of the religious-tourism potential in Romania. Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography, Volume 12, Issue 2. Available at: http://humangeographies.org.ro/articles/122/a_122_6_giusca.pdf
[13] Griffin, Kevin and Raj, Razaq 2017. The Importance of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage: reflecting on definitions, motives and data. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage, 5(3). Article 2. DOI:https://doi.org/10.21427/D7242Z
[14] Haraldsson, HV, and Ólafsdóttir, R. 2018. Evolution of Tourism in Natural Destinations and Dynamic Sustainable Thresholds over Time. Sustainability, 10(12): 4788. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124788
[15] Hitti, P. 2008. Istoria arabilor, Traducere și note: Irina Vainovski-Mihai Editura ALL, București
[16] Huang, K., and Pearce, P. 2019. Visitors' perceptions of religious tourism destinations. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, Volume 14. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2019.100371.
[17] Hvizdová, E. 2018. Religious Tourism and Its Socio-Economic Dimensions. European Journal of Science and Theology, 14(2): 89-98. Available at: http://www.ejst.tuiasi.ro/Files/69/9_Hvizdova.pdf
[18] Jackson, E. A., and Tamuke, E. 2019. Predicting Disaggregated Tourist Arrivals in Sierra Leone Using Arima Model. Theoretical and Practical Research in the Economic Fields, 2: 132-142. DOI:https://doi.org/10.14505/tpref.v10.2(20).06
[19] Jawabreh, O.A. A. et al. 2022. The Importance of Religious Tourism for Development of Sustainable Tourism: The Case of the Baptism Site in Jordan. Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, 4(60): 909-924 DOI: https://doi.org/10.14505/jemt.v13.4(60).01
[20] Karasakaloğlu Burcu 2020. Bibliometric Analysis of Religious Tourism Studies. Turkish tourism research magazine. Available at: https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=889601
[21] Knox, D., et al. 2014. Is Tourist a Secular Pilgrim or a Hedonist in Search of Pleasure? Tourism Recreation Research, 39(2): 235-267. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2014.11081769
[22] Mahanty K. Tushar 2022. Religious tourism turns economic multiplier across globe. Business Economics. Available at: https://businesseconomics.in/religious-tourism-turns-economic-multiplier-across-globe
[23] Morinis, A. 1992. Sacred Journey. The Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Greenwood Press, Westport, pp.10-14;
[24] Rinschede, G. 1992. Forms of religious tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 19(1). DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0160-7383(92)90106-Y
[25] Romanelli, M., Gazzola, P., Grechi, D., Pollice, F. 2021. Towards a sustainability-oriented religious tourism. Research paper, Wiley Online Library DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2791
[26] Roszak, P. 2022. Contemporary Trends in the Theological Understanding of Christian Pilgrimage. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage, 10(3). Article 9. DOI:https://doi.org/10.21427/fa9w-9e96
[27] Suban S.A. 2022. Bibliometric analysis on wellness tourism – citation and co-citation analysis. International Hospitality Review. Available at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IHR-11-2021-0072/full/pdf
[28] Vana, M.V. 2021. Religious and pilgrimage tourism in Maramureș. Thesis. Available at: https://teze.doctorat.ubbcluj.ro/doctorat/teza/fisier/6561 (in Romanian)
[29] Center for the Study of Global Christianity. https://www.gordonconwell.edu/center-for-global-christianity/
[30] Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/
[31] UNWTO – World Tourism Organization. https://www.unwto.org/tourism-statistics/key-tourism-statistics
[32] https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-countries-where-youre-surrounded-by-tourists/
[33] https://travel.earth/what-is-religious-tourism-and-what-are-the-challenges-it-is-facing/
Copyright© 2023 The Author(s). Published by ASERS Publishing 2023. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of CC-BY 4.0 license.