What is the meaning of religious tourism? Belongs for sure to the collection of types of alternative tourism.
CHARACTERISTICS OF RELIGIOUS TOURISM
Religious tourism involves the possibility of our personal acquaintance with the strongholds of tradition, the sanctuaries, pilgrimages, monuments and monasteries, offering us an experiential and living lesson of faith, history and culture and reconnecting us with always alive and well-rooted roots of each place.
Religious tradition is extremely strong in a lot of areas and present in daily life. Religious monuments played an important historical role during the great struggles of each nation.
Daily routine, 9-5 work, information floating all around and in the middle people tired of that kind of leaving conditions. As a solution or a mental fix to this situation, a lot of people are searching to visit places with a special physiognomy and identity. Can discover warmth, human communication, hospitality, but also receive answers to all kinds of questions, since on places like that is still strong the relationship between heaven and earth.
For example, entering a humble chapel or monastery with the mysterious atmosphere and the immersion of the icons and its chanting but also participating at festivals, where people from every part of the earth are accepted as friends is something unique and an internal need for people that are a fan of religious tourism.
The acquaintance with the religious monuments but also the deep sense that they convey is associated with the search for one spiritual way of life, based on authentic traditional values.
For this reason, monuments of that kind are not just museum elements or inanimate objects information transmitters. On the contrary, it is a strong presence in the cultural tradition of each place, a deposit of soul, hope, and renewal, and as a
of this, they can even today inspire and give a different meaning of life to the seeker
.
Of particular interest to visitors who prefer religious tourism is the constant growing organic farming of the land. With pioneers in the activity, many monasteries apply it, with the aim of preserving the natural environment but also the awareness of the sanctity of creation.
Also, visitors in the context of science religious tourism programs and who are interested in issues concerning energy savings, visiting the monasteries, have the ability to detect bioclimatic architecture, application renewable energy and the use of water resources. Religious tourism can also be combined with other types of alternative tourism like food tourism as that concept of travelling choices is close to nature and raw materials and can provide great options and experiences.
Check here some more examples and importance of food tourism
SEASONALITY OF RELIGIOUS TOURISM
The periods in which religious tourism is growing are during the summer months and religious holidays. Religious tourism gives another breath to the tourist development of less developed areas, reinforcing degraded or “Abandoned” productive sectors of the local economy. Tha also helps each to reach their own sustainable development goals.