The geography of pilgrimage and tourism: Transformations and implications for applied geography

The aim of this research is to examine the transformations undergone in the research of pilgrimage and tourism and the implications of these types of travel on tourism planning and other economic activities. Case studies exploring four type of pilgrimage are presented: Christian, Jewish, Baha'i, and Buddhist. The paper provides examples of these transformations in the four studies. This paper concludes that, although research on this issue is not sufficiently coherent, much of the literature on this subject does explore several key themes. It also appears that, in the twentieth century, the pilgrimage phenomenon tends toward a blurring of tourism and pilgrimage. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.