Wellness pilgrimage: A post-COVID tourism business opportunity for sacred sites
Many people will be keen to travel for wellness, perhaps even enlightenment, when they arrive at the end of their COVID-19 tunnels. In this “Good Tourism” Insight, university lecturer Ricardo Nicolas Progano points to the potential for rural destinations with sacred, spiritual, or religious heritage to tap into pent-up wellness tourism demand.
[Thanks to Jim Butcher for inviting Dr Progano to write a “GT” Insight.]
The practice of travelling for health and well-being is deeply related to pilgrimage. Since ancient times, pilgrims would embark on arduous journeys to sacred sites to obtain divine healing. In ancient Greece, for example, devotees would visit the Temple of Asclepius, the god of medicine, to seek divine favour and obtain a cure for their ailments.
Religious and spiritual beliefs, myths, and legends were imprinted in popular narratives that encouraged travel to their source. In the Japanese story of Oguri Hangan and Princess Terute, the main character was miraculously healed in the waters of Kumano Kodo, which is still a pilgrimage circuit visited by all social classes today.
Nowadays, while seeking miracle cures may not be as common, travellers continue to visit different locations for wellness and health reasons. This can take a wide range of forms: from seeking cheaper medical treatment in another country (medical tourism) to visiting a spa in a local hot-springs establishment (wellness tourism).
While modern medical procedures for objective outcomes play an important role in medical tourism, pilgrimage sites continue to be linked to more subjective notions of good health, wellness, and even miraculous cures. The Lourdes sanctuary in France is a prime example in contemporary Western society.
In this blog post I would like to describe the relationship between pilgrimage travel and wellness, where ‘wellness’ is a holistic balance of healthy body and healthy mind rather than a cure for a particular disease. ‘Wellness’ also emphasises self-responsibility and lifestyle changes as ways to improve one’s quality of life.
For full and free access to this “Good Tourism” Insight and all other “GT” content, please visit https://goodtourismblog.com/2021/08/wellness-pilgrimage-post-covid-tourism-opportunity-for-sacred-sites/
