The Bible And Global Tourism

"An examination of how biblical tourism is enmeshed within the production and management of heritage; marketing and publicity in contexts of global tourism; accessibility of Bible-related sites and routes for multiple audiences; and, the forging of connections between touristic experience and biblical identity"--

This volume examines the ways in which biblical tourism is enmeshed within the production and management of heritage, global contexts of marketing and publicity, accessibility of sacred sites and routes for multiple audiences, and the forging of connections between travel and social identity. By exploring issues such as devotional piety, religious pedagogy, and entertainment, an interdisciplinary collection of scholars traces how biblical tourism experiences are choreographed and consumed, and how these practices shape embodied and narrative performances of scripture. Contributors focus on four major questions: How have people used tourism to develop new, or renewed, relationships with the Bible? Historically, what role has the Bible played in the development of modern tourism? In the context of the tourist encounter, how have people mobilized the Bible as a social and expressive resource? And what forms of social exchange shape acts of biblical tourism, such as among pilgrims, or between people and landscapes? These questions are centered not only around authorized shrines and “Holy Places,” but also festivals, museums, theme parks, and heritage sites. This book aims to create a comparative and interdisciplinary dialogue around the dynamic relationship between biblical heritage claims and the practices and infrastructures of modern tourism.

Most tourism theories have been developed from the tourists' perspective and focus on the Anglo-American experience. This unique book for researchers and students of tourism is the first to look at the host gaze; how it is constructed, how it has developed, how it varies between countries and how the tourism industry can affect it. By looking at the gazes of both Western and non-Western hosts, this book analyses the consequences such a gaze can have upon the tourist.

`This book is one of several indications that the sociology of tourism is on the move.... these articles raise relevant important themes in the study of tourism.... The contributors to this very readable book provide valuable insights, many of which have been derived from empirical research, that should interest anyone involved in the study of international tourism. And by moving us away from polarised positions over the social impact of tourism toward more complex but also more considered perspectives they have also helped alter the agenda for future research′ - David Harrison, University of Sussex Tourism is becoming an increasingly prominent feature of contemporary life. More of us travel for pleasure than ever before, yet the social scientific literature on tourism is relatively scant. This book provides an original contribution to the field of tourist studies. The contributors to International Tourism reconceptualize the local and the global, avoiding such crude oppositions as centre v periphery, modern v traditional, macro v micro and North v South. Instead, they demonstrate that the local cannot be understood without the global, and that the global can never be isolated from the regional setting within which it operates. Providing new insights into theories of touristic practice, this volume places tourism within the same framework as other transnational global studies.

This book is the first to examine the depth, complexity and uniqueness of global Christian pilgrimage, travel and tourism, and how they manifest in terms of both supply and demand. It explores the places and spaces of production and consumption of this increasingly important tourism phenomenon. The volume considers the foundational elements of the attractiveness of places according to Christian thinking – spirit of place, scriptural connections, art and architecture, contrived/themed environments, programmed events, volunteer travel opportunities, and visiting local communities by way of solidarity tourism and mission work. It includes a wide range of examples from Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America and North America and will be of interest to researchers and students in religious studies, tourism, pilgrimage studies, geography, anthropology and Christianity studies.