Religious Tourism in an Atheistic Society: The Example of the Czech Republic

Abstract

For a more accurate understanding of religious tourism, it is useful to distinguish between faith-based tourism, spiritual tourism and tourism in religious spaces. The former is characterized by religious faith (and processes of hierophany), the next by spirituality and transcendence experience, while the latter remains in the secular realm of experience. Based on this conceptual grasp, the paper presents the situation in the highly secular Czech Republic and investigates the opinions of service and offer providers in this type of tourism through interviews (n = 3). A comparison with the demand and preferences of tourism participants was collected through an online survey (n = 104). The findings point to a significant and untapped potential and minimal knowledge or interest on the other hand. This highlights the fact that if correctly communicated and presented, tourism in religious places can be something to present to Czech tourism participants and possibly to foreign tourists.

Keywords

• faith-based tourism
• spiritual tourism
• czech republic
• tourism offer
• demand