1227 | 131 | In-depth analysis of the contemporary religious tourism to pilgrimage centers in Poland in the light of contemporary socio-cultural changes | dr Justyna Liro, prof. Izabela Sołjan
Among the many challenges faced by religious tourism is certainly the search for answers to the socio-cultural and civilizational changes taking place in the contemporary world. For centuries, sanctuaries have attracted people because of their religious needs and the desire to commune with the sacred in these special places. Today, we can observe a clear blurring of the differences between the pilgrim and the tourist. More and more often, visits to sanctuary centres do not result only from spiritual needs, and sometimes are not related to them at all. New forms of spirituality, not institutionally connected with any religion or denomination, appear. The aim of the paper is to present how Catholic sanctuaries deal with the mentioned problems and to what extent they are prepared for changes, especially to welcome individual pilgrims, seekers, and tourists. The research was carried out in two ways, i.e. the motivation and level of satisfaction were studied on a group of visitors at six pilgrimage centres in Poland. On the other hand, the pastoral offer of these centres and changes in the organization of their sanctuary zones were analysed, thanks to which they can implement, apart from religious functions, also other, especially cultural and tourist ones. In order to compare Polish centres with foreign sanctuaries, research on sacred zones was also carried out at the largest selected pilgrimage centres in Europe. This made it possible to identify common trends and formulate regularities taking place in sanctuaries in connection with the changing model of making pilgrimages, and the progressive diversification of visitors
dr Justyna Liro, prof. Izabela Sołjan
Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland
ID Abstract: 131