Religious Tourism: The Way to Santiago
Religious Tourism: The Way to Santiago
Religious Tourism: The Way to Santiago
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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION<br />
which <strong>to</strong>urist destination should I choose and the different fac<strong>to</strong>rs <strong>to</strong> analyse. Among<br />
those fac<strong>to</strong>rs, the most interesting was getting <strong>to</strong> know weather the majority of the<br />
<strong>to</strong>urists, visiting religious destinations, had a strong religious belief or not, in other<br />
words, if religion had affected the <strong>to</strong>urists in order <strong>to</strong> visit this type of destinations.<br />
In spite of the fact that at the beginning I wanted <strong>to</strong> study a comparative analyse<br />
between the most significant religious <strong>to</strong>urist destinations from the main religions in<br />
the world, I chose centring my research on only one religion and one <strong>to</strong>urist<br />
destination, in this case, Christianity in <strong>Santiago</strong> de Compostela as one of the most<br />
representative sites for this religion.<br />
<strong>The</strong> reasons in order <strong>to</strong> make a decision were various. For example, the proximity <strong>to</strong><br />
the city were I was writing the thesis, getting <strong>to</strong> know weather most of the visitants<br />
were religious or non religious, or just the fact of visiting the city.<br />
1.3 Research Area<br />
In this study, the research area focuses on religious <strong>to</strong>urism. <strong>Santiago</strong> de Compostela<br />
as a case study will be the area researched where a sample of 489 visi<strong>to</strong>rs will answer<br />
the question weather religion or religious activities are the main motivation of the<br />
<strong>to</strong>urists <strong>to</strong> visit the city, specially the Cathedral, as an example of a sacred site and<br />
pilgrimage destination.<br />
1.4 Research Aim and Objectives<br />
<strong>The</strong> research aim and objectives of this dissertation, covers the fact that religious<br />
people travel around the world <strong>to</strong> visit sacred sites because of the religion, and not<br />
because of another type of motivation, such as cultural motivation, or his<strong>to</strong>rical<br />
motivation.<br />
<strong>The</strong> main objective of the dissertation is <strong>to</strong> find out how much is increasing the<br />
number of non believers, or people without a strong religious belief travel who travel<br />
David Mashhadigholam Rojo 3