Special Issue "Sustainable Religious Tourism"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 January 2022.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Rubén C. Lois-González
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Geography and Town and Country Planning, University of Santiago de Compostela, 15705 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Interests: urban geography; economic development; cultural studies
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Lucrezia Lopez
E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
University of Santiago de Compostela, 15705 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Interests: human geography; tourism geography; heritage and heritage management; geography of pilgrimages and geography of sacred spaces; geo-humanities
Special Issues and Collections in MDPI journals
Dr. Rossella Moscarelli
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Polytechnic University of Milan, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: urban planning; marginal areas; slow tourism; public policy; cycling and walking paths

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Originally, the expression religious tourism referred to religious places, but religious tourism is a practice related to the evolving concept of “sacred space”, which today refers to postmodern and “more than representational” approaches (della Dora, 2011). Symbolic performances maintain and renew the value of sacred spaces (Kong, 2001; Holloway and Valins, 2002; Coleman and Eade, 2004). As a result, different practices are associated to religious tourism, such as pilgrimage. In addition, there are new emerging “sacred places”, whose importance is not necessary bound to officially recognized religions. As a matter of fact, new pilgrimages celebrate events or graves of national martyrs or commemorate the diaspora to recover the historical roots of a population (root-pilgrimage or diaspora tourism). These new places of worship and memory (proceeding from new secular or civil religions) are also based on nationalistic sentiments. Therefore, attention should be paid to the dichotomy: sacred places and secular places. In addition, contemporary societies are producing “private religions”, whose power resides in the individual and not in the transcendent (Farias and Lalljee, 2008). Thus, spirituality and religiosity are still relevant as they take on new meanings and implications; indeed, spirituality does not necessary stand for religion, but rather it refers to subjectivity, as “New Age” movements show in their search for a new individually-oriented spirituality and the need for introspection (Digance, 2003).

Considering this postmodern approach, the aim of the Special Issue is to explore the permanence and emergence of religious places that leave their imprints on the territory and characterize it thanks to their different practices. This diverse “spatial use” supposes a new territorial organization that poses some issues in terms of sustainable tourism practices and management.

Prof. Rubén C. Lois González
Dr. Lucrezia Lopez
Dr. Rossella Moscarelli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • religious tourism
  • spiritual practices
  • private religions
  • sacred spaces
  • secular spaces
  • territorial impacts
  • sustainable religious tourism

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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