Abstract
This paper aims to provide a model for the assessment of the religious-tourism potential in Romania. The religious practice has been in a continuous change over the past 20 years, making the pilgrimage phenomenon to have an upward trend. In the same time, many religious edifices are becoming more attractive to visitors, as they are included in package tours, and visited by large numbers of tourists. In Romania, there are many religious places visited both, by tourists or pilgrims; it is difficult to assess their numbers and also to distinguish between religious practices and touristic visits as no studies have been conducted in this direction. They are centres of religious (spiritual) power, in which people regularly spend money and time while around them it has been developed a real infrastructure, from roads or construction of facilities to more complex services that include accommodation, stores or commercial stalls, selling souvenirs or items more or less related to religious practice. Therefore, the objectives of this paper aimed at evaluating the tourist valences of religious edifices in Romania as well as the degree of their valorisation; in order to meet these objectives, three dimensions were considered and assessed: the historical-cultural dimension, the religious dimension, and the economic dimension. Many relevant elements for these dimensions have been quantified, giving them scores based on unitary criteria. The results help to see better the differentiation/association between the tourist value and the religious value of religious edifices in Romania, highlighting particularities at the national level, which will be the subject of further analysis.
Full text
Permalink (doi)
Authors Affiliations
Giușcă Mădălina-Cristiana, Gheorghilaș Aurel, Dumitrache Liliana
University of Bucharest, Romania
* Correspondence address. Email: ge.madalina@yahoo.com
References
Bădulescu, A. and Ban, O. (2005), “Turismul religios”, Revista Amfiteatru Economic, Ed. ASE, Bucharest.
Brandon, S.G.F. (ed.) (1970), A dictionary of comparative religion, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London.
Bremer, T. (2005), Tourism and Religion in Encyclopedia of Religion, L. Jones (ed), Macmillan, Detroit.
Cristureanu, C. (1992), Economia si politica turismului internațional, ABEONA, Bucharest.
Dumbrăveanu, D. (2008), Politici promotionale in turism, Ed. Universitară, Bucharest.
Durant, W. (1950), The Age of Faith, Simon & Schuster, New York.
Ester, P., Loeck, H. and de Moor, R.A. (1993), “Value Shift in Western Societies”, in P. Ester, H. Loeck and R.A. Ruud de Moor (eds.), The Individualizing Society: Value Change in Europe and North America, Tilburg University Press, Tilburg.
Gheorghe, M. (2004), Religie si schimbare sociala in Romania, Ed. Fundatiei Axis. Iasi.
Gheorghilaș, A. (2014), Geografia Turismului – Metode de analiză in turism, Ed. Universitară, Bucharest.
Gillet, O. (2001), Religie si nationalism. Ideologia Bisericii Ortodoxe Romane sub regimul communist, Compania Altfel, Bucharest.
Gombos, S. (2009), Credinta si Spiritualitate in Universul Concentrationar Comunist, crestinortodox.ro – Cea mai mare comunitate ortodoxă din lume, viewed on 12 April 2017, https://goo.gl/cW7inL.
Istrate, V. and Glacan (1994), “Turismul cultural din Romania, liant al spiritualității romanești de pretutindeni”, Revista Romana de Turism, Ministerul Turismului
Jackson, R.H. and Henrie, R. (1983), “Perception of sacred space”, Journal of Cultural Geography, vol. 3, no. 2.
Kitagawa, J.M. (1994), In căutarea unitatii. Istoria religioasa a omenirii, Ed. Humanitas, Bucharest.
Kong, L. (1990) “Geography and religion: trends and prospects”, Progress in Human Geography, vol. 14, no. 3, p. 355-371.
Margry, P. (ed.) (2008), Shrines and Pilgrimage in the Modern World: New Itineraries into the Sacred, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam.
Meyendorff, J. (1996), Biserica Ortodoxa ieri si azi, Ed. Anastasia, Bucharest.
Moldoveanu, M. and Ioan-Franc, V. (1997), Marketing şi cultură, Ed. Expert, Bucharest.
Morinis, A. (1992), Sacred Journey. The Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Greenwood Press, Westport
NA, (2018), Organizarea Administrativă, viewed on 12 January 2018, https://goo.gl/3s6XNX.
Pearce, P. (1993), Fundamentals of Tourist Motivation, in Tourism research: Critiques and challenges. D.G. Pearce and R.W. Butler (eds.), Routledge, London.
Raj, R. (2012), “Religious tourist’s motivation for visiting religious sites”, International Journal of Tourism Policy, vol. 4, no. 2, p. 95-105.
Rinschede, G. 1992, “Forms of Religious Tourism”, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 19, p. 51–62.
Rojas-Méndez, J. (2013), “The nation brand molecule”, Journal of Product & Brand Management, vol. 22, no. 7.
Secretariatul de Stat pentru Culte, (2014), Statul si cultele religioase, Secretariatul de Stat pentru Culte, Litera, Bucharest, viewed 2 March 2017, https://goo.gl/Len3tv.
Stan, L. and Turcescu, L. (2000), “The Romanian Orthodox Church and Post-Communist Democratization”, Europe – Asia Studies, vol. 52, no. 8, p. 1467-1488.
Steffler, A.W. (2002), Symbols of the Christian Faith, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Michigan.
Tomasi, L. (2002), “Homo Viator: From Pilgrimage to Religious Tourism via the Journey” in From Medieval Pilgrimage to Religious Tourism: The Social and Cultural Economics of Piety, W.H. Swatos Jr. and L. Tomasi (eds.), Praeger Publishers, Westport.
Turner, V. (1973), “The Center out There: Pilgrim’s Goal”, History of Religions, vol. 12, no. 3, p. 198–230.
Turner, V. and Turner, E, (1978), Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspective, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
University of Amsterdam Press, Amsterdam.
Vukonic, B. (2002), “Religion, Tourism and Economics: A Convenient Symbiosis”, Tourism Recreation Research, vol. 22, no. 2, p. 59-64.
Weidenfeld, A. and Ron, A.S. (2008), Religious Needs in the Tourism Industry, Anatolia.
Willson, G.B., McIntosh, A.J. and Zahra, A.L. (2013), “Tourism and Spirituality: A Phenomenological Analysis”, Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 42, p. 150-168.
This post has already been read 3623 times!
