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esponsibility' of the participants, which they
undertake in contact with other individuals and
environments, as well as the conflicts that this can
lead to. But at the same time, the Catholic Church
recognises the fact that tourism helps to lessen
various prejudices among people and leads to
mutual respect among nations, as well as creating
the objective conditions for the spiritual elevation
of individuals. The idea of pastorisation of tourism
was born in Christianity and contained in the
organisation of religious ceremonies for believers
spending their holidays in a certain destination.
This idea in its highest form leads to the spreading
of religion and the promotion of its teaching. In this
sense, tourism is fertile ground for such work
because in their free time people are relaxed, they
accept debate and they are prepared to meditate
and to gain new insights.
Islamic theologians find it difficult to reconcile
Islam with the `Western contents' of tourism,
stressing rather its spiritual and social dimensions.
They apostrophise especially the negative impacts
of the development of modern tourism that are
reflected in a marked sexual permissiveness,
pornography, voyeurism, nudism and so on, as
well as in certain forms of supply that are opposed
to Islamic tradition and religious teaching �as
regards to food, drink, gambling and the like).
But on the other hand, in Islam, hospitality is a
major theme in all holy books, writings and
teachings. The attitude of Islam towards hospitality
was to be expected, considering the fact that the
hajj is one of the fundamental commandments for
an Islamic believer. Buddhism is much more
tolerant in this respect. This is reflected especially
in the different ways in which foreign tourism is
treated in some Buddhist countries.
The standpoints of the tourism theory are
somewhat different. In religious tourism, the
dominant sacred content of the journey is important,
but it is also important that other, so-called
touristic, contents should be present at such a
destination. Therefore the very fact that the tourist
is a believer is not sufficient for such a person to be
called a religious tourist. Tourists who are religious
are simply manifesting their personal conviction.
Such tourists do not join touristic movements
impelled by religious motives; they use their
religious needs and rituals in the same way usually
religion 499
done in their permanent place of residence. They
also demand that certain religious contents be
included in the obligatory range of touristic supply
amenities, but these contents or buildings are not
crucial to their decision to travel to a certain
destination, although they may affect their final
decision.
The most visible connection between tourism
and religion is the thousands of sacred buildings
that are frequented by tourists. The reason for their
interest is increasingly to be found in the cultural
content or historical value of the sacred building,
rather than its original religious purpose. These
contents are determined by their function in
religion. What attract �religious) tourists are
pilgrimage shrines, defined as places that serve as
the goals of religiously motivated journeys from
beyond the immediate locality; religious attractions,
in the form of structures or sites of religious
significance with historic and/or artistic importance;
and festivals with religious associations.
There are enormous numbers of objects which
have a religious meaning, and are thus used in
religious rituals �prayer books, breviaries, rosaries,
crosses and more), which tourists keep as religious
souvenirs. In modern tourism one is witnessing a
large-scale vulgar commercialisation of religious
motives and their use on the most varied objects,
which thus become symbols of certain religious
sites or content. Today there are probably no
orthodox theologians or other theorists who would
deny the economic impacts of religious tourism.
Believers had to be accommodated and catered for,
and they bought various objects as souvenirs of
their stay in the place of pilgrimage as well as other
kinds of goods and food. This represented a
constant source of income for the local population.
Rome was probably the first world shrine which
not only felt the economic benefits of pilgrimage
but also undertook certain activities to increase the
impact. It is thought that there were over two
million pilgrim and religious tourists every year.
It is hard to escape the impression today that in
most of the places of pilgrimage in the world, the
profane impact is more and more on a par with the
religious impact. In the religions that are more
`hardline' or conservative in their requirements for
the strict observance of all the religious duties of
their adherents, such benefits are no longer denied.