Religious heritage and sacred sites offer an opportunity to visitors to explore the knowledge of the community visited, however the importance of interpretation, meaning, experience, and narrative need to be considered.
This book is a timely re-assessment of the increasing linkages and interconnections between management of diversity and religious tourism and secular spaces on a global stage. It explores key learning points from a range of contemporary case studies of religious and pilgrimage activity, related to ancient, sacred and emerging tourist destinations and new forms of pilgrimage, faith systems and quasi-religious activities.
By providing a conceptual framework the book demonstrates the symbolism of sacred spaces within religious traditions and the relations developed amongst them. It offers explanations on how to manage and how to communicate the religious diversity and provides a solid overview of:
Religious tourism as a tool for intercultural dialogue
Interpretation of religious heritage for tourism
Cross-cultural contacts
The book will provide a valuable resource for those researching and practicing in tourism management, pilgrimage and religious tourism.
Om författaren
Dolors Vidal-Casellas, Ph D, is Dean and a senior lecturer at the Tourism Faculty of the University of Girona. She is Founder of the Official Master in Cultural Tourism, a member of the Contemporary Culture and Art Chair and also member of the research groups ’Contemporary Art Theories’ and ’Higher Institute of Tourism Studies’ (INSETUR). She is director of the collection ’Turisme cultural’ (cultural tourism) by Edicions Vitel·la (http://www.edicionsvitella.com). She joined different cooperation programmes with universities from Algeria, Sao Paolo, Piracicaba (Brazil) and San Martin de Porres (Peru). She is also a member of cultural tourism international networks: Ibertur, Atlas and Unitwin ’Culture, tourisme et developpement’ (UNESCO). Her research interests include cultural tourism, religious tourism, history of tourism, heritage management, destination imagery and tourism planning and policies.