For millennia people have travelled to religious sites for worship, initiatory and leisure purposes. Today there are hundreds, if not thousands, of religious pilgrimage routes and trails around the world that are used by pilgrims as well as tourists. Indeed, many religious pilgrimage routes and trails are today used as themes by tourism marketers in an effort to promote regional economic development.
Providing a holistic approach to religious pilgrimage routes and trails, this book:
– Addresses important conceptual themes such as sustainable local development, regional economic development, heritage identity and management, and promoting environmentally friendly practices;
– Includes global case studies to help transfer theory into good practice;
– Calls for further discussion of the importance of better planning, management, and maintenance of these routes and trails, so that the positive benefits of this type of tourism development can be fully realized.
An important resource for those interested in religious tourism and pilgrimage, this book is also an invaluable collection for academics and policy-makers within heritage tourism and regional development.
About the author
Dr Kiran Shinde teaches in the Planning program at La Trobe University, Australia. He does
research in the field of religious tourism, and has published about 50 research articles relating to
cultural heritage, religious tourism, policy analysis, and destination planning and management.
His papers have appeared in high-ranking journals, including Urban Studies, Current Issues in
Tourism, International Journal of Tourism Research, Geo Forum, and Space and Culture. He has also
contributed chapters in books published Elsevier, Routledge, SUNY Press, and CABI. He has
presented research papers at conferences in Canada, Turkey, Australia, Portugal, Singapore, the
UK, and the USA. He was invited by the UNWTO to contribute to the Bethlehem Charter on Religious
Tourism. He is also on the editorial board of the International Journal of Religious Tourism and
Pilgrimage. Recently, he completed a UNWTO report on Buddhist tourism in Asia. He holds a Ph D
from Monash University, Australia, an MSc from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand),
and an M.Tech from CEPT University, India
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