Economics and religion have been influential forces in shaping world history. However, according to Vukonić, the economic aspects of religious travel have been the least studied topic in relation to the religion– tourism crossover, only being of interest to researchers when a single sacred site is under consideration. Religious pilgrimage has a history of being an economic generator in the areas pilgrims visited, as services developed to cater to their needs. This is much the same today, where in many places religious sites are the main tourist attractions and sometimes anchor entire economies, such as in Santiago de Compostela, Medjugorje, Lourdes, and Mecca. In many countries and localities, tourism is seen as a way either to diversify or rescue a struggling economy, especially with current tourism forecasts, as mentioned earlier, showing that religious tourism will increase in the near future. Jackowski and Smith give the example of pilgrimage sites in Poland where because of Second World War damage and communist repression, a tourism infrastructure was virtually non-existent in the early 1990s. They point out that this lack of infrastructure limited tourists’ length of stay, subsequently limiting opportunities for local residents to gain from the economic benefits of pilgrimage tourism. Jackowski and Smith argue for the potential of religious tourism to become an important source of income and employment in Poland. Tourism development at the El Rocio shrine in Spain has also played a central economic role in increasing employment and local revenues. In some areas the demand for services from tourists and pilgrims has changed the landscape and urban land use patterns at pilgrimage centers. Two examples are Lourdes, France, and Fatima, Portugal, where the pilgrimage zone can be divided into the profane or commercialized area (restaurants, shops, hotels, etc.) and the sacred (pilgrimage shrines, churches, etc.). The urban morphology of Lourdes has changed in that there is an intensive agglomeration of souvenir shops and restaurants along the roads leading from the commercialized part of town to the pilgrimage areas. Similarly, Gupta points out that almost every pilgrimage place in India has shops catering to tourists and pilgrims seeking special handicrafts (Source: Pilgrimage, Tourism and Spiritual Journeys).
Key Features of Pilgrimage Tourism vs. Profane Tourism
