Fifth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

This paper explores the contested history of religious tourism in Palestine from the mid-nineteenth century Ottoman period up to the end of the British Mandate in 1948. Beginning with Murray’s landmark Handbook for Travellers in Syria and Palestine (1858), guidebooks played an important role in packaging and promoting the Holy Land, privileging some sites over others, and providing tourists with a well-established route to follow. The enterprising efforts of Thomas Cook & Son, who began organizing all-inclusive tours of the area in 1869, facilitated this process. Many of these early tourists were Christian pilgrims, focused on religious sites especially in Jerusalem. Over the years, however a number of sites elsewhere in Palestine also assumed religious significance and began to attract visitors in a dynamic process that has continued up to the present day. These include Rachel’s Tomb, which gained in popularity with the influx of Jewish immigrants in the 1880s. Still to be explored is how Christian travelers viewed sites such as the Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif; in short, how they grappled with the many religious traditions that were present in the Holy Land. These include multiple Christian denominations, including Orthodox, Copts, and Catholics, which tourists encountered at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Nativity. Religious tourism in the Holy Land, therefore, has been a complex and dynamic phenomenon that has changed considerably over time and in response to fluctuations in the local population as well political transformations.