Spiritual Grounding
Visitor’s Diversified Motivations and Experiences and the Pilgrimage Centers
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Justyna Liro
A new look at the phenomenon of religious tourism emphasizing its complex character and its wide influence was proposed in the early 1990s. Next, Collins-Kreiner (2010) drew attention to the blurring of boundaries between tourism-pilgrimage and tourist-pilgrim. The paper presents firstly: the visitors’ motivations and experiences at the 12 largest pilgrimage centers in Poland. Here, the relation and correlation between these elements are emphasized for the first time. The most important motivations for visits were religious and tourist ones. They visited religious, cultural and tourist buildings and facilities. Nowadays, visitors’ motivations and behavior at pilgrimage centers include those typical for pilgrims and tourists in the traditional meaning. Secondly, here, the similar changes (from dedifferentiation approach) in the spatial organization of pilgrimage centers in Europe are presented. Particular attention was paid to their development from the time of foundation to the present state in the organizational, spatial and functional aspects. The most intensive development has been taking place since the 1970s till today. Changes tend to differentiate objects (in terms of their number and function). Along with the changing travel conditions, the standard of visitor service is changing too, resulting in a more extensive and varied spatial organization. Increasingly, the religious function is extended by others, which may be used by visitors with diverse motives. The models are a summary of the paper: spatial organization and 4-stage model of its development. The changes in visitors’ motivations and pilgrimage centers are part of the dedifferentiation approach in the post-modern research.
The Construction of Narratives about Tourist Destinations: The Case of the Sanctuary of Virgen del Rosario, Cajamarca, Peru
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Maria E Sanchez Zambrano, Mario Marcello Pasco-Dalla-Porta, Maria Elena Esparza
Tourist destinations operate in universes of meaning. The founding meaning assigned to a tourist resource by the actors who own or manage it is constantly resignified by other actors along the tourist circuit. However, in certain circumstances, the founding meaning is distorted and commodified by market forces, which jeopardizes the socio-cultural sustainability of the involved tourist destination. One way of reducing these negative effects is the participatory construction and articulation of narratives about the tourist destination. Its must be flexible enough to incorporate the founding meaning and subsequent resignifications that enhance it. Moreover, they should be at the basis of any effort of tourism planning and development. This research involves a semiotic approach to the construction of these narratives in zones with high potential of tourism development. Specifically, it intends to identify the founding values assigned to a tourist resource, explore the related resignifications that emerge along the tourist circuit, promote a space for the participatory construction of a narrative about the tourist destination as a whole, and suggest a guideline for an appropriate planning of this destination according to the constructed narrative. The study focuses on a new tourist destination:This sanctuary is fully decorated with an astonishing set of mosaics inspired by biblical passages. The project involved local employment and free education programs that benefited the impoverished population of this rural zone. This research intends to elucidate to what extent the founding combination of aesthetic, religious, and social values will be able to survive the tourism market dynamics.
