Title: In defence of differentiating pilgrimage from tourism

Authors: Craig T. Palmer; Ryan O. Begley; Kathryn Coe

Addresses: Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, 107 Swallow Hall, Columbia, MO 65211-1440, USA. ' Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, 107 Swallow Hall, Columbia, MO 65211-1440, USA. ' Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Indiana University, 714 N Senate Ave, EF 2, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA

Abstract: There has been a recent trend to conclude that it is impossible, or at least unproductive, to differentiate pilgrimage from tourism. We challenge this trend by arguing that pilgrimage can be defined and distinguished from tourism by examining how these words are used literally. We conclude that pilgrimage can be defined as a journey claimed to be undertaken for reasons involving religious sacrifice, and that applying the word pilgrimage to tourism is only an example of the use of metaphor. We describe the advantages of establishing a definition of pilgrimage, and explain how our definition may be improved upon through further testing.

Keywords: pilgrimages; differentiations; tourism definitions; metaphors; religion; religious sacrifice; postmodern critiques; pilgrims; postmodernism; anthropology; tourist industry; tourists.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTA.2012.046062

International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 2012 Vol.2 No.1, pp.71 - 85

Received: 23 Sep 2011
Accepted: 27 Jan 2012
Published online: 16 Aug 2014 *

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