IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2022i1p461-d1016935.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reframing the Intersections of Pilgrimage, Religious Tourism, and Sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Kiran A. Shinde

    (Department of Social Inquiry, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia)

  • Daniel H. Olsen

    (FHSS Geography, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA)

Abstract

Every year, hundreds of millions of people around the world travel to sacred places to worship and to learn. While the practice of pilgrimage has a long tradition and is an important part of many religious traditions and the spiritual development of individuals, some scholars have begun to question the sustainability of modern pilgrimage travel. Not only does pilgrimage, like other forms of mobility, contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases and waste accumulation, it also seems to be exempt from blame when it comes to the current environmental crisis. In addition, while mass religious gatherings have historically been tied to the transmission and spread of disease, the threat of pilgrims becoming infected while on pilgrimage has not historically been an inhibiter to religious mobility. Indeed, the demand for pilgrimage seems to increase during times of hardship and uncertainty. Given these inherent contradictions, the purpose of this conceptual paper is to question the notion of sustainability in the context of pilgrimage and religious tourism and discuss whether modern day pilgrimage and religious tourism can be structured and managed in a more sustainable manner. First, the authors discuss the existing academic literature on the positive and negative economics, socio-cultural, and environmental impacts of pilgrimage and religious tourism. The authors then question the validity of certain tourism-environment models, including the ‘Tourism Area Life Cycle’ and ‘Carrying Capacity’, in the context of pilgrimage and religious tourism, particularly as they apply to pilgrimage and religious tourism destinations that do not typically show a decline in their visitor numbers. The authors then expand upon a conceptual model that can help scholars analyze the impacts of pilgrimage and religious tourism on pilgrim-towns. The authors conclude by contending that future discussions regarding sustainability in the context of pilgrimage and religious tourism should include religious and cultural constructs of what constitutes the tangible and intangible forms of sacredness of a place.

Suggested Citation

  • Kiran A. Shinde & Daniel H. Olsen, 2022. "Reframing the Intersections of Pilgrimage, Religious Tourism, and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2022:i:1:p:461-:d:1016935
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/461/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/461/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yaryna Khmara & Jakub Kronenberg, 2020. "Degrowth in the Context of Sustainability Transitions: In Search for a Common Ground," Lodz Economics Working Papers 1/2020, University of Lodz, Faculty of Economics and Sociology.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haas, Mara, 2024. "Das transformative Potenzial suffizienzorientierter Stadtentwicklung als Beitrag zur Postwachstumsstadt in Wien," Forschungsberichte der ARL: Aufsätze, in: Finger, Anne & Badelt, Ole & Dahmen, Kathleen & Heilen, Lydia & Mai, Nora & Seegers, Ronja & Seewald (ed.), Transformationsprozesse in Stadt und Land: Erkenntnisse, Strategien und Zukunftsperspektiven, volume 23, pages 39-52, ARL – Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft.
    2. Froese, Tobias & Richter, Markus & Hofmann, Florian & Lüdeke-Freund, Florian, 2023. "Degrowth-oriented organisational value creation: A systematic literature review of case studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    3. Ariel Macaspac Hernandez & Yudhi Timor Bimo Prakoso, 2021. "The Learning Activation Approach—Understanding Indonesia’s Energy Transition by Teaching It," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Alejandro De Castro Mazarro & Ritu George Kaliaden & Wolfgang Wende & Markus Egermann, 2023. "Beyond urban ecomodernism: How can degrowth-aligned spatial practices enhance urban sustainability transformations," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(7), pages 1304-1315, May.
    5. Ming-Feng Huang & Li-Pei Peng, 2023. "Extracting Evaluation Factors of Social Resilience in Water Resource Protection Areas Using the Fuzzy Delphi Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-18, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2022:i:1:p:461-:d:1016935. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.