Towards a Religious View of Tourism: Negotiating Faith Perspectives on Tourism

Abstract

In recent years there has been a growth of academic literature related to the intersections between religion and tourism. While much of this research has taken place from an industry and academic perspective, little has been written on how leaders of particular religious faiths critique and evaluate secular understandings of religiously informed and motivated travel from a theological standpoint. The purpose of this article is to address this paucity of research by broadly examining how religious leaders and groups view tourism as a social phenomenon. Rather than this article being based on case-based primary research that highlights and critiques the specific views of tourism of particular religious traditions, this article offers a reflection on how scholars interested in investigating the views of tourism of religious leaders and groups can begin to answer the question, "how would one study how religious leaders view tourism?" Five research themes are suggested to understand religious views of tourism, including religious perspectives on appropriate leisure, religious views of hospitality, gendered religious spatial practices, religious views of the human body, and religious attitudes towards the arts. The article concludes with a call to tourism scholars to take religious views of tourism more seriously in any discussion related to religion and tourism.