Spiritual tourism

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Spiritual tourism is a collective term for travel with the aim of gaining whatever kind of “ spiritual experience ”. The term is used in both the travel industry and pastoral theology . The latter mainly takes into account the increase in pilgrimage and monastery trips with an emphasis on spiritual, religious or ecclesiastical content.

Term establishment

Spiritual tourism is a relatively young term that was probably first used in 2005 by New Zealand Baptist pastor Steve Taylor. At the same time, the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the State of Saxony-Anhalt , under the direction of Christian Antz, designed a project to combine tourist offers with religious and ecclesiastical content. This was intended to expand the concept of religious tourism used in science and practice in the 1980s and 1990s . Distributed by Antz and Neumann Becker investigation "Spiritual tourism in Saxony-Anhalt" led to the interdisciplinary study conference Holy Places, sacred spaces, pilgrimage routes of the Catholic Thomas More - Academy 2006, the name Spiritual tourism both in theology and in the tourism industry a . This marked the beginning of the professional discussion on the topic and concept of spiritual tourism , especially in the German-speaking area, among the church and tourist public . With the conference on Spirituality and Tourism of the German Society for Tourism Science 2009 in Eichstätt, the term was finally established. In the English-speaking world, a conference held at the University of Lincoln from April 5-7, 2006 had a similar effect.

Definitions

According to the definition of the Marburg art historian Karin Berkemann , spiritual tourism means "spiritual and physical travel ". The Catholic theologian Herbert Poensgen gave a similar definition. According to him, spiritual tourism is “that form of travel, relaxation and relaxation that is nourished by the longing for post-material values, for salvation expectations, holistic ideas and an urge for the supernatural.” In contrast, the Cologne market psychologist Christoph B. Melchers describes spiritual tourism far more general than “becoming familiar with something special”, which ranges from a family photo in front of a statue of a well-known personality to receiving a meaning in life.

Classification

A scientific analysis and classification of the topic encounters many obstacles, whereby the evaluation of the motivation to travel plays a central role. It is almost impossible to ask a traveler about his level of religious motivation to determine whether he is a religious or a non-religious tourist. Apart from that, travelers originally with a different motivation occasionally have unplanned spiritual experiences during their trip, which shape the character of the trip from this point on (in the extreme case like the legendary Damascus experience of the Christian persecutor Saul, who, according to the Bible, found himself in the apostle during a trip Paul transformed). There are unexpected changes in the character of a trip. B. also in cases in which travelers are "spiritually overwhelmed" by impressions gained at the place of stay (example: the Jerusalem Syndrome ).

The majority of pilgrims who have walked the Camino de Santiago on arrival in Santiago de Compostela, Spain , say that they did this hike for religious reasons. But there will also be people who have made the pilgrimage for other reasons that are not easy to classify. However, there are differences between the various types of travel.

Types of travel

  • Monastery holidays
    multi-day stays in spiritual centers such as monasteries and communities where a break with the outside world is consciously desired and spiritual offers such as meditation and discussion groups are requested.
  • Pilgrimage
    Hikes that are consciously undertaken individually or in small groups with spiritual motives. Simple pilgrim quarters that differ from commercial offers are consciously preferred. The Way of St. James is of particular importance throughout Europe .
  • Pilgrimages
    Traditional one-day or multi-day hikes that take place in groups, e.g. B. be undertaken with the parish to canonically recognized places of pilgrimage. They recur annually, often with the same route.
  • Church visits
    As the most important form of travel in spiritual tourism, the motivations of travelers when visiting a church are particularly heterogeneous. Religiousness, historical, cultural and architectural interest all flow together.
  • Religious festivals
    Traditional festivals with a religious character.
  • Sites with a historical-religious character
    Places, often birthplaces, that are closely linked to the life and work of a person who was known in a religious-spiritual sense.

Trend or tradition?

Religious travel can be seen as a forerunner of today's tourist travel insofar as this type of travel, unlike commercial or war travel, was often of a voluntary nature. In the Middle Ages it was quite common for the church to prescribe pilgrimages to “ sinners ” as penance; But for those disciplined in this way it was entirely possible to refrain from the trip without serious consequences. Pilgrimages increased, especially from the 13th century . During this time there were over 10,000 pilgrimage sites in Europe. With the Reformation , religious trips came to an end for the time being in the areas that had become Protestant, but with the Counter-Reformation numerous important pilgrimage sites, such as Altötting or Vierzehnheiligen, flourished again, especially in Catholic Bavaria . Those who take part in relevant trips today are therefore mostly maintaining an old tradition.

Many people, including Protestants, are "only" looking for distance and reflection on trips from which they hope to gain some kind of "spiritual added value", mostly beyond the organized offers of established religious communities. In many cases the need for a “free-floating spirituality” is to be met, which according to the respective traveler should not be restricted by traditional dogmas. According to trend researchers, this point of view is an expression of “megatrends” which are supposed to lead to a strong increase in demand in both the sensory markets and in the tourism industry. Both growth factors can therefore be brought together in “spiritual tourism”.

A mixed form is the perception of offers from established religious communities without the customer accepting all the implications actually associated with it for himself. In addition to pilgrimages (not only on the Way of St. James ), temporary stays in the monastery are also in demand by a growing group of people who have no plans to live like monks or nuns or to fulfill a vow . In addition to older people, it is increasingly also young people, couples and families who generally lead a “normal” worldly life and temporarily seek the necessary distance from their otherwise very hectic life or (after a stroke of fate or a life crisis) seek help. One can speak of a “trend” when people can at any time look for ways other than traditional ways of satisfying those needs to satisfy those needs that are not nourished by traditional piety .

Those who are not primarily concerned with preserving traditions, nevertheless often have the effect of reviving old customs and festivals, and pilgrimages that have become unusual are also brought back to life.

classification

Spiritual tourism must be seen as a separate form of travel. There are elements of cultural tourism or hiking tourism , but these cannot be adopted 1: 1. In particular, on pilgrimage routes, the focus should not be on the “sporty” incentive to overcome physical obstacles that can only be overcome through great effort. The structure of the spiritual journeys shows a strong heterogeneity in terms of demand and supply. It is therefore difficult to distinguish a religious trip from a non-religious one. Important elements include a. the sponsorship of the offers, the awareness of the trip and the peculiarity of the guest-host relationship, which is usually not characterized by commerce and thus differs from conventional tourist offers.

criticism

At the Wittenberg study conference, Herbert Poensgen expressed himself critical of the "plastic word" spirituality . It belongs in the context of a postmodern detachment of the spiritual from concrete religions, which can be deconstructed in the sense of a “free-floating spirituality” and whose set pieces can be reassembled by anyone at will. Religion is replaced by religiosity. For the Rostock theology professor Thomas Klie, spirituality is “a container term for late modern religiosity. And each believer decides for himself what goes into the container. ”The spiritual tourism organized in Germany ties in with this type of“ respiritualization of Germany ”.

Christoph Kühn from the German St. Jakobus Society criticizes the fact that those pilgrims who are outraged that there is a reference to the Buchenwald concentration camp in the materials on the Via Regia as an East German section of the St. James Way , the deeper meaning of a pilgrimage on the St. James Way would not have understood. Pope John Paul II pointed out in 1982 that pilgrims were about following the Apostle James. The apostle James is venerated as a martyr in Santiago, and what his successor could (must not mean) in the final analysis is shown by the fate of the evangelical martyr Paul Schneider in Buchenwald, described in the pilgrim guide . Kühn also considers the fact that there is no reference to the Osthofen concentration camp on a “pilgrim path” running through the middle of the wine village of Osthofen as a misinterpretation of the idea of ​​spiritual tourism. It is often only about the pilgrims' "own needs and longings" and the need to increase sales in the tourism industry by avoiding negative experiences.

At a conference of the Thuringian Church and Tourism working group , it was criticized that measures in spiritual tourism are often guided by irrelevant interests and that the terms Jakobsweg and pilgrims are used decontextualized as brands that are effective for the public.

Oberösterreich Touristik GmbH claims that "[s] piritual hiking [...], unlike pilgrimage, is not religiously motivated". When organizing its offers, it makes a strict distinction between "religiously shaped, organized and professionally accompanied pilgrimages in larger groups" (the "religiously motivated") and "spiritual wanderers" who "usually organize their trip individually" and "alone or in small groups Groups on the move ”. Christian Antz rejects such a devaluation of forms of travel that do not adhere to the requirements and rules of the (in the case of Upper Austria: Catholic) Church. Antz demands that the organizers of spiritual tourism have to "pick up the people" where they are and not where the Christian churches are.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steve Taylor, Daniel Ehniss: Spiritual Tourism. Free translation of the chapter Postcard 5: Spiritual Tourism from Steve Taylor: The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change. (PDF; 535 kB)
  2. ↑ Reiner Haseloff : Foreword . In: Ministry of Economy and Labor (ed.): Holy places, sacred spaces, pilgrimage routes. Possibilities and Limits of Spiritual Tourism. Bensberger Protocols 102. 2006, p. 8 (7).
  3. ↑ Catherine Jane Rogers: Secular spiritual tourism. International Institute For Peace Through Tourism (IIPT), 2007 (PDF; 41 kB).
  4. ^ Karin Berkemann: Spiritual tourism in Saxony-Anhalt. Results of a nationwide study . In: Ministry of Economy and Labor (ed.): Holy places, sacred spaces, pilgrimage routes. Possibilities and Limits of Spiritual Tourism . Bensberger Protocols 102. 2006, p. 37 (38)
  5. ↑ Herbert Poensgen: New Developments in Spiritual Tourism - Examples, Trends, Orientations. What is Spiritual Tourism or Spiritual Travel? . In: Ministry of Economy and Labor (ed.): Holy places, sacred spaces, pilgrimage routes. Possibilities and Limits of Spiritual Tourism . Bensberger Protocols 102. 2006, p. 18 (19)
  6. ^ Christoph B. Melchers: Spiritual tourism. Motives - forms - maintenance of tourist brands . In: Ministry of Economy and Labor (ed.): Holy places, sacred spaces, pilgrimage routes. Possibilities and Limits of Spiritual Tourism . Bensberger Protocols 102. 2006, p. 79 (78)
  7. ↑ E.g. Arenberg Monastery
  8. ↑ E.g. Ecumenical pilgrimage
  9. ^ Reinhard Kurzinger: The fascination of the Way of St. James. The pilgrimage trend and the discovery of ancient routes. In: Hans Hopfinger, Harald Pechlaner, Silvia Schön: Cultural factor spirituality and tourism. Orientation towards meaning as a strategy for destinations. Erich Schmidt, Berlin, p. 197.
  10. ↑ Pilgrims - Pilgrimages - Hikes ( Memento of February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Rhineland-Palatinate Tourism website. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  11. ↑ E.g. Regensburg foot pilgrimage
  12. ↑ E.g. Osterreiter in Upper Lusatia
  13. ↑ E.g. Birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI.
  14. ↑ Christian media association KEV e. V .: "Stern" about handicraft religions in Germany . Per. christian media magazine . November 26, 2009
  15. ^ Institute for trend and future research (ITZ): Personal Jesus: From the official church to the spiritual adventure society . November 1, 2012
  16. ↑ Herbert Poensgen: New Developments in Spiritual Tourism - Examples, Trends, Orientations. What is Spiritual Tourism or Spiritual Travel? . In: Ministry of Economy and Labor (ed.): Holy places, sacred spaces, pilgrimage routes. Possibilities and Limits of Spiritual Tourism . Bensberger Protocols 102. 2006, p. 17 (18)
  17. ↑ Evelyn Finger: The Renaissance of Unreason: Longing for the Self . "The time" . Edition 21/2013
  18. ^ Christoph Kühn: Pilgrimage and Tourism . oekumenischer-pilgerweg.de
  19. ↑ Pilgrimage and Tourism (PDF; 89 kB)
  20. ↑ Oberösterreich Touristik GmbH: Spiritual hiking trails enliven tourism . April 15, 2014
  21. ^ Christian Antz: Market Chances of Spiritual Tourism . Gera. March 23, 2010, thesis 26

Web links

literature

  • Steve Taylor: The Out of Bounds Church? Learning to create a community of faith in a culture of change . Grand Rapids: Zondervan 2005
  • Karin Berkemann : Spiritual tourism in Saxony-Anhalt . Wittenberg 2006 (Tourism Studies Saxony-Anhalt 19) ISBN 3-9808638-1-6
  • Hans Hopfinger, Harald Pechlaner, Silvia Schön, Christian Antz (eds.): Cultural factor spirituality and tourism. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-503-14116-6
  • Holy places, sacred spaces, pilgrimage routes. Possibilities and Limits of Spiritual Tourism . Magdeburg-Wittenberg-Bensberg 2006 (Tourism Studies Saxony-Anhalt 24 / Bensberger Protocols 102) ISBN 978-3-89198-088-0
  • University of Lincoln, Department of Tourism and Recreation: Tourism - the spiritual dimension. Conference. Lincoln (Lincolnshire) 2006
  • Aline Sommer, Marco Saviano: Spiritual Tourism . Heilbronn series of the tourism industry, uni-edition, Bochum 2007, ISBN 978-3-937151-70-0 .