PUBLICATIONS IN REVIEW 547

Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 34, No. 2, pp. 547–548, 2007

Printed in Great Britain

Tourism, Religion, and Spiritual Journeys

Edited by Dallen Timothy and Daniel Olsen. Routledge <http://
www.routledge.com> 2006, xv + 285 pp (figures, tables, bibliography,
index) £85 Hbk. ISBN 9780415354455

Amos S. Ron
Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Israel

This volume is an important contribution because spiritual and religious tour-

ism is one of the most understudied areas. One of the few, Vukonić (1996), is a
primarily conceptual work, and this book is the next step, with a blend of about
40% conceptual and 60% case-study chapters, covering several religious and non-
religious spiritual movements. The anthology covers a large portion of the globe,
both religiously and culturally. According to its editors, ‘‘The aim of this book is to
contribute to the growing literature on religiously motivated travel by reviewing
and challenging existing paradigms, concepts, and practices related to pilgrimage
and other forms of religious travel’’ (p. 3). It consists of four sections: an introduc-
tory chapter; concepts, concerns, and management issues; religious traditions and
tourism; and a concluding chapter.
The first chapter, written by the editors, is an introduction to the subject, in gen-
eral, and to the book, in particular. Their comprehensive and updated literature
review covers four themes: pilgrim-tourist dichotomy characteristics and travel
patterns of religious tourists; economics of religious tourism and negative impacts
of tourism on religious sites/ceremonies. Two additional themes could have been
added here: the management and sustainability of holy sites and the distinction
between religious, civil and secular pilgrimages.
The second section expands the limits of traditional pilgrimage to nonreligious
contexts of spiritual journeys. Its chapters deal with four main perspectives: geo-
graphical, historical, spiritual, and managerial. Two chapters deal with secular
pilgrimages, but ignore the events of civil religion (civil pilgrimage) that are
very popular in several cultures. The authors refer to those visiting battlefields as
secular pilgrims, to 9–11’s Ground Zero as a secular pilgrimage center, and to
Anzac day as a day of secular pilgrimage—but, in fact, these are all examples of civil
pilgrimage. In addition, neither of these chapters mentions the seminal work of
Reader and Walter (1993) on modern civil and secular pilgrimage.
An important theoretical contribution is found in chapter three, where
the author makes a distinction between two kinds of secular pilgrims: ‘‘those
who still claim traditional religion as meeting their spiritual needs but for
whom the journey fulfills a deep personal meaning, and those who could
loosely be grouped under the broad ‘New Age’ banner’’ (p. 37). Chapters seven
and eight contribute towards narrowing the gap between managerial needs of spiri-
tual and religious tourism, and research on the subject. In chapter eight, Daniel
Olsen mentions a management vacuum, assuming the presence of site managers
and custodians, thus ignoring the fact that many sites have neither. According to
Olsen, government influence ranges from suppression to subsidization. It would
be useful to further develop this typology and outline more stages along this con-
tinuum.
548 PUBLICATIONS IN REVIEW

The third section takes the reader on a journey through nine case studies to parts
of the world where several religions and spiritual movements are practiced. The
chapters deal with monotheistic religions, Asia philosophies and religions, and
modern secular spiritual movements. These chapters include an overview of the spe-
cific religion or spiritual movement, a useful contribution to the reader, although
the overviews for ‘‘Tourism and the Spiritual Philosophies of the ‘Orient’’’ and
‘‘Global Jewish Tourism: Pilgrimages and Remembrance’’ are much too long.
The chapter, ‘‘Tourism and Islam: Considerations of Culture and Duty’’, refers
only to Muslim tourism in in their own countries, thus omitting non-Muslim coun-
tries with significant Muslim minorities, such as India and China. Western coun-
tries with large Muslim communities, such as Germany, France, and the United
Kingdom, are also relevant here. Ongoing exposure to Western society has likely
had a significant impact on their tourism patterns. In a chapter on ‘‘Tourism
and Informal Pilgrimage among the Latter-day Saints’’, Olsen identifies four types
of destinations chosen by Mormons. However, one could suggest a fifth type: visit-
ing non-Mormon sites as part of a Mormon group, which can also be a very mean-
ingful spiritual experience that shapes this identity.
The concluding chapter re-emphasizes the relevance of the book, not only to
the study of religious journeys, but also to nonreligious spiritual ones. Its authors
rightly claim that the book does not solve the tourist-pilgrim debate, ‘‘but perhaps
a solution is not as important as understanding the roots of contention’’ (p. 272).
The conclusion suggests potential directions for future research and ends with the
speculation that ‘‘there are clear indications that this form of travel will continue
to grow far into the future’’ (p. 276).
The book is well written and well presented. Although its tone is purely aca-
demic, intended to be used by scholars and students, potential readers include any-
one interested in the field of religion and spirituality. However, the authors
overlook one important fact: religions and holy places are attractive to both mem-
bers of a particular faith and outsiders. The Western Wall in Jerusalem, for exam-
ple, draws multitudes of gentiles that find the place an important attraction;
Lourdes, France, draws many non-Catholics who stop there on their way to the
Spanish Riviera.
To conclude, the book offers—not surprisingly—several definitions of pilgrim-
age. Perhaps the best is that by Singh: ‘‘Pilgrimage in the traditional sense is an
inner journey manifest in exterior space in which the immanent and the transcen-
dent together form a complex spiritual and travel phenomenon’’ (p. 220).

Amos Ron: Department of Tourism and Hospitality Studies, Kinneret College on

the Sea of Galilee, Israel. Email <amosron2@netvision.net.il>

REFERENCES
Reader, I. and T. Walter, eds.
1993 Pilgrimage in Popular Culture. Basingstoke Hampshire: Macmillan Press.
Vukonić, B.
1996 Tourism and Religion. Oxford: Pergamon.

Assigned 18 May 2006. Submitted 11 October 2006. Accepted 12 October 2006

doi:10.1016/j.annals.2006.10.007