Annalso/Tourrrm Research, Vol. 19, pp. l-17, Printed in the USA. All rights reserved.

1992 Copyright

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INTRODUCTION The Quest in Guest

California Valene L. Smith State University, USA

The quest in guest-the motivations for a journey, the aspirations for wish-fulfillment, and the ultimate satisfaction (or failure)is a complex topic. This Special Issue of Annals of Tourism Research was developed to extend research concerning the nature of the human quest, and to investigate the relationships between two types of travel-pilgrimage and tourism. The term pilgrim now commonly connotes a religious journey, but its Latin derivation from peregrinus suggests broader interpretations, including foreigner, wanderer, exile, and traveler, as well as newcomer and stranger. The term tourist has similar Latin origins, from tornus or lathe, and defines an individual who makes a circuitous journey-usually for pleasureand returns to the starting point. The contemporary use of the terms, identifying the pilgrim as a religious traveler and the tourist as a vacationer, is a culturally constructed polarity that veils the motives of the travelers quest. The seven articles that comprise this Special Issue consider various aspects of this linguistic dichotomy. All essays are multidimensional and incorporate either new theoretical perspectives or typology, and all are supported by case studies that contrast tourist and pilgrim activities. BASIC DEFINITIONS

Tourism has been defined (Smith 1989) as an activity dependent on three operative elements: discretionary income, leisure time, and social sanctions permissive of travel. Pilgrimage also requires these same three fundamentals. Although true mendicants undoubtedly existed in
Valene Smith is Professor of Anthropology at California State University (Chico CA 95929, USA). A founding member of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism, she organized the symposium that became the landmark book Hosts and Guests: The Anthropolou of Tourism, then encouraged each author to reexamine their case study 15 years later for the 1990 second edition, to provide time depth in the study of tourism. She has served on the Editorial Board of Annals since its inception. Known by colleagues for her far-ranging personal travels, she has broad interests in the use of tourism as a developmental tool, as well as in the mitigation of tourism impacts.

INTRODUCTION

the distant past of Christianity and are found today in Asia among the Hindu and Buddhist devout, most contemporary pilgrims using modern transportation have some travel money. Islam even mandates that discretionary travel funds for the hujj must also provide for the family left at home. Leisure time ensues from being temporarily free from employment or work, and creates a commodity that the individual can spend on a vast range of options, such as study, gardening, or jogging. All recreational activities are alternatives to pilgrimage or touring. Social sanctions, or what the community deems to be appropriate or correct behavior, strongly influence the manner in which leisure time (and vacations) are spent. Positive social sanctions are necessary for both pilgrim and tourist travel, but prevailing philosophy rooted in socioeconomic and political conditions may encourage pilgrimage at one time and pleasure travel at another. Devout Tibetans who prostrate themselves on the pilgrimage path to the temple are admired locally for their piety. In contrast, present-day tourists visiting the tomb of a teen-age idolElvis Presleywho prostrated themselves along the paths at Graceland, his Tennessee home, would be highly suspect. Thus, of the three essentials, social approval is the most important in differentiating the activities of tourists from pilgrims. Individual belief or world view, however, would appear to be the single most important criterion to distinguish pilgrims from tourists. Using the present-day culturally defined perception that the pilgrim is pious, one assumes that the true pilgrim has faith in some type of divine order and with single-mindedness of purpose embarks on a journey of sacred wish fulfillment. According to anthropologist Colin to a religious Turnbull (1981a:14), p i lg rims gain a sense of belonging or spiritual heritage rather than a cultural one. By contrast, the tourists wish-fulfillment is supposedly joyous, measured in the hedonistic pleasures of good food and wine, the German Gemutlichkeit, the golfers flush of excitement in the luck of a hole-in-one at famous St. Andrews course in Scotland, or the experience of seeing dances at a yam festival in the Trobriands. But the sacred is not necessarily solemn or restricted to the pilgrim. Tourist encounters can be just as compelling and almost spiritual in personal meaning. A long-time friend, an elderly highschool teacher, devoted every vacation during her long career to travel. One purpose was to gather fresh material for the next class of students. Restricted for decades by the Bamboo Curtain, when mainland China finally opened to tourism she pleaded, I must see the Great Wall before I die! Sheer willpower sustained her journey to this shrine, where her tired eyes were suddenly aglow. Once home, with a few days to share the delight of that experience with friends and former students, she quietly passed on; her tourist wish had been fulfilled. In addition to common worldview, travelers, whether they journey as pilgrims or tourists, generally share the same infrastructure. Historically, paths became roads, hospices became inns, and merchant stands built beside shrines - secular as well as religious - still sell liquid refreshments, trinkets, and locally needed items to all visitors, regardless of their travel state. Some monasteries now accept paying guests, who in turn seek this unusual lodging to experience a historical tradi-

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tion. Formerly ascetic monks, such as the Dalai Lama (who occupied a modern Western-style home in Lhasa before his necessary exile from Tibet), when traveling in the West today, enjoy the comforts of luxury hotels that provide security, business centers for correspondence, and fitness facilities. THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

The superficial relationships between tourists and pilgrims have been recognized for several decades by medieval scholars (Jones 1912; Kendall 1970) and tourism historians (Sigaux 1966; Towner 1985). The theoretical research on the nature of pilgrimage has been largely inspired by the writings of Durkheim (1912) and Eliade (1969), and expanded by the important contributions of Turner (1973) and Turner and Turner (1978). A May 1981 conference at the University of Pittsburgh organized on Pilgrimage: The Human Quest generated great interest and many valuable articles; the proceedings will be appearing soon (Morinis forthcoming). For tourism researchers who are unfamiliar with Turners multifaceted anthropologist Nelson Graburn theoretical pilgrimage philosophy, (1983a) has provided the most succinct theoretical summary statement to date. Most authors agree with Turner and Turner (1978:20) that if a pilgrim is half a tourist. However, a tourist is half a pilgrim, in examining tourists and pilgrims in Sri Lanka, Pfaffenberger (1983), found the distinctions lie with culturally supplied languages of symbols: and perhaps recreation or nature appreciation faith for the pilgrim, for the tourist. Sociologist Erik Cohen (forthcoming) has reexamined the Turner core concepts of Center and Other, which focus on pilgrim behavior, and added fresh interpretation to the Turnerian tradition. Most recently, the Asian Studies Association sponsored a pilgrimage session at its April 1991 annual meeting; one paper from this examines pilgrimage and tourism in Tibet (see Christiaan Klieger in this issue). Another recent innovation is the release of the first documentary video on Chinese pilgrimages (Swain in this issue). Even with recent groundbreaking works such as these, the theoretical base of understanding tourist wish fulfillment remains very thin. MacCannell (1990) d escribes leisure as the core of society, but he ties tourism primarily to the postindustrial period. Graburn (1989) links tourism to the pleasure periphery and describes tourism as a sacred journey in which the individual escapes from the workaday world to the land of play. But travel is often more tiring than employment, as the derivation of the term from travail (work) suggests. Some forms of recreation exact an arduous even life-threatening toll, for example, rock climbing or skiing across Antarctica. Psychologist Philip on a multimotivational mix of Pearce (1991) h as work in progress tourist aspirations, to account for the great range of tourist activities. His. ladder of motivations holds theoretical promise, to clarify the meaning of wish fulfillment. In accord with Adler (1989) and many others who identify tourism and pilgrimage as opposite end-points on a continuum of travel (Figure l), the polarities are labeled as sacred (a), and as secular or profane (e).

INTRODUCTION

PILGRIMAGE

RELIGIOUS

TOURISM
C

TOURISM

a sacred

e secular

faith/profane knowledge - based

a. pious pilgrim; b. pilgrim>tourist; c. pilgrim=tourist; d. pilgrimdourist; e. secular tourist

Figure 1. The Pilgrim-Tourist Path

However, the diagram is only a momentary interpretation of presentday thought, and the designations are by no means immutable. Between the extremities lie almost infinite possible sacred-secular combinations, with the central area (c) now generally termed religious tourism. These positions reflect the multiple and changing motivations of the traveler, whose interests and activities may switch from tourist to pilgrim and vice versa, even without the individual being aware of the change (Pearce 1991). Figure l(b) is, therefore, more pilgrim than more tourist than pilgrim. The Polish tourist, and (d) the converse, scholars (Jackowski in this issue) also use the term knowledge-based tourism as synonymous with religious tourism. These scholars discuss the individuals quest for shrines and locales, where in lieu of piety, the visitors seek to experience the sense of identity with sites of historical and cultural meaning (see Nolan and Nolan 1989). The sensual images obtained by personal presence are important to both sacred and secular travel, and can also serve as important recall stimuli, to remember and relive the experience. In considering the nature of Islamic travels, Eickelman (1990:6-8) observes how difficult it is to establish relationships between motives and social action. He observes that the social sciences have two suggestive but incomplete approaches to the study of who travels and why. One approach examines social class and position, which omits the historical circumstances. The second approach examines the actors rational choices with the (false?) assumption that all persons will reach the same decisions given similar circumstances. But this Special Issue provides data for other theoretical interpretations. CONTRIBUTIONS IN THIS ISSUE

The first article in this special issue is by John Eade, who describes his two decades as a volunteer hospitalier at Lourdes, France, where he interacted with pilgrims and tourists alike. The second article by Erik Cohen, widely known for his ongoing research in Thailand, details tourist and pilgrim activities at four types of Thai temples, both rural and urban. Both scholars make important contributions to understanding the pilgrimage-tourism interface through further discussion of Turnerian tradition and their use of the emit approach, that is, viewing events through the eyes of the participant. Gilbert Rinschede provides a useful overview of the pilgrimage phe-

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SMITH

nomenon in major world religions. From this base, he develops a typology of tourism and tourist usages of pilgrimage sites, by mode of transportation, by season, etc. Mary Lee and Sidney Nolan introduce a three-tier typology that includes pilgrim shrines; centers of interest and sites where ethnic, religiously based folklore for religious tourism; events are tourist attractions. The data, in part an abstraction of their 1989 landmark book, Christian Pilgrimage in Modern Western Europe, are rich in illustrative examples. There are two articles on eastern Europe that share the common theme of pilgrimage and tourism in countries controlled by oppressive Marxist governments. Boris Vukonic analyzes the 1981 appearance of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorge, Yugoslavia, where her reputed daily appearances soon attracted many visitors: pilgrims and religious tourists, as well as many curiosity seekers. Foreign tour operators quickly recognized Medjugorge as a new destination useful to promote additional travel to Yugoslavia. In a detailed study, Antoni Jackowski discusses the history of Polish pilgrimages and particularly the importance of the unique foot journeys undertaken by youths as a form of backlash against political Poland needs and wants tourism that would provide inoppression. come comparable to that of Medjugorje; but to date the necessary infrastructure is virtually nonexistent. The final article by Jackson and Hudman traces the history and westward migration of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) to the Salt Lake Valley in Utah. Mormon travel agents now regularly schedule many tours to sites important in church history; they commonly combine the itineraries to include nature tourism, other sightseeing, and family resort vacations. Religious tourism, when shared by members of the same faith and congregation, is, therefore, recreational and it supports community cohesion. Many observers believe this type of religious tourism is a trend of the future, and the Mormon example is especially noteworthy. THE TOURIST-PILGRIM PATH THROUGH TIME

Although this Special Issue contributes new data to tourism research, many topics, including pragmatic and theoretical issues, await further study. Definitions need to be refined to understand better the interplay of roles and behavior of the true pilgrim, the pilgrim-tourist (or religious tourism), and the secular tourist. In accord with Hardy (1990), this assessment must include the various economic, political, and social factors that have historically influenced travel, and as a result individual participation in pilgrimage vis-a-vis tourism. Wish-fulfillment is the powerful and jointly shared motive that provides the impetus for individuals to travel. It is a truism, as Vukonic (this issue) states, that the human species, although endowed with its enlarged brain and association areas, regularly faces problems unresolvable by human means. Hope lies in the appeal to and dispensation from some form of the super natural (greater than the normal laws of nature, such as God, spirits, magic, and other anthropological synonyms). Pilgrimages are often thought of as journeys undertaken

INTRODUCTION

in anticipation of a future betterment, but they need not necessarily be sacred. The pious pilgrim who is terminally ill seeks a miracle at Lourdes; the secular counterpart may also be a pilgrim to the office of renowned doctor, to regain health through medication and psychosomatic medicine. The key elements in this cultural construct are belief and knowledge. The secular tourist hopes the use of discretionary money and leisure time will provide a wish fulfillment of pleasure, relaxation, a change, new friends, or other desires of choice. Thus, the tourist is a temporarily leisured person who voluntarily leaves home for the purpose of experiencing a change (Smith 1989: 1). Symbolically, following Graburn: Tourism has a stated, or unstated but culturally determined, goal that has changed through the ages. For traditional societies, the rewards of pilgrimage were accumulated grace and moral leadership in the home community. The rewards of modern tourism are phrased in terms of values we hod up for worship: mental and physical health, social status, and diverse, exotic experiences. (1989:28) The magnitude and frequency of unresolvable problems were greater in the historical past. Therefore, the level of hope required to sustain individuals and their culture was greater then than now. Space-age technology now provides medical treatments, even cures, for many ailments that were once the occasion for miracles sought at shrines. This progressive modernization through time has major implications with reference to human need and on prevailing attitudes toward travel. Therefore, it is instructive to examine tourism vis-g-vi, pilgrimage chronologically, in terms of social sanctions and individual beliefs especially with reference to Christianity. Of all major world religions, Christianity is most directly linked to the Age of Discovery, the Industrial Revolution, Westernization, and ultimately the rise of humanism in postindustrial society. Western thought with respect to travel-pilgrimage and tourism can be divided into four periods; from Greek origins to the Reformation (1517 A.D.); the Reformation to the publication of the Origin of Species and the introduction of evolutionary theory; from 1859 to the period often described as the crises in religion (1960s); and from the crises to today1992. The following brief description is offered to initiate dialog, and written with full, due respect to the many scholars whose voluminous literature is replete with data and insights. None, however, seem to have previously considered the distinctions between pilgrimage and tourism as a phenomenon of temporal variations involving belief (the sacred) and knowledge (the secular). The Origins to 1517 A.D. Pilgrimages, as journeys to invoke divine intervention in problem resolution date at least to the Greek era, and their investigation of the natural elements-fire, wind, and water. Individuals sought guidance from oracles housed in shrines near the numerous hot springs of their

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SMITH

islands. This ancient veneration of nature persists in the Western world, and in the 199Os, it is reflected in ecotourism. Nature is also fundamental to Hindu tirtha uatru, or pilgrimage to places of religious importance, especially to sacred streams and hilltops where bathing and other rites are performed for expiation of sins and salvation of souls (Kaur 1985:19; also the book review by Carolyn Brown in this issue). Biblical scholars usually mark the beginning of Judaic-christianIslamic history with the pilgrimage of Abraham, who, in obedience to the word of the Lord, went into the Promised Land. Thereafter, the Old Testament (Deuteronomy XVI, 16) ms t ructs all Israelites to hold pilgrim festivals (Shalosh Regalim) in Jerusalem three times each year: at the Festivals of the Passover, the Tabernacles, and the Weeks. Christian pilgrimages can be dated as early as the second century, first to Jerusalem, then to Rome, and later to other sanctuaries associated with relics (mortal remains of saints or martyrs, or objects with which they have been in contact). Pilgrimages persisted, although probably in reduced numbers throughout the Dark Ages; they regained popularity during the Crusades, with increased travel to other shrines, especially Campostela and Canterbury. Although Rinschede (in this issue) suggests that only a small and privileged population could afford to travel during the Middle Ages, Mullins (1974:2) states that as many as half a million pilgrims visited Santiago during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and other estimates suggest that up to one-third of the extant European population at that time made the long overland trek to Campostela (Smith 1981). At that time, pilgrimages were passports to a wondrous hereafter and potential escape from famine, pestilence, war, and fear of death (and hell), which, together with infertility, poverty, and persecution, created a misery that lay beyond mortal control. This was true even for aristocrats and the wealthy. Kendall (1970:37) observes that anyone might become a pilgrim, and as early as the sixth century, it was written of late so many Scats (Irish) [NB Celts] are pilgrims that it would appear that the habit of travelling is part of their nature. Recordkeeping and study of pilgrimage as a religious phenomenon has long been academically respectable. By contrast in the 199Os, even with the near-meteoric rise of tourism as a world business, to study tourism is still regarded in some quarters as a frivolous pursuit. As a result, early travel accounts such as the ethnographies of Herodotus (ca. 480-421 B.C.) are rare, and most data must now be gleaned from nondirect sources. In general, only the accounts of the rich and famous have been preserved, but few of them traveled alone. The time away from home was considerable: in 1139 it took 49 days one-way from Canterbury to Rome (Kendall 1970:45), and the journey was often repeated. Charlemagne made four trips to Rome, and each time he must have been accompanied by troops, clergy, councilors, retainers, servants-and probably pimps, prostitutes, and stragglers. In addition to each notable, therefore, one must calculate a throng. Estimates of the cost of travel are also difficult to obtain, but travelers were so numerous that currency exchange was available at major fairs where merchants gathered, for example, at Winchester (United Kingdom),

INTRODUCTION

Troyes (France), and Bologna (Italy). Monastic orders, such as the Knights Templar, also became travel bankers. Kendall (1970:45) reports that in the fifteenth century, the cost for a government official to visit Rome was &750, and for the ordinary traveler about .f150 (expressed in the 1970 equivalent). Medieval pilgrimages later became so commonplace that surrogates (even servants) could be hired to undertake them. Jacques De Vitry is quoted in 1097 A.D., Some light-minded people go on pilgrimages not out of devotion but out of mere curiosity and love of novelty. All they want to do is travel through unknown lands to investigate the absurd, exaggerated stories they have heard about the east (Sumpton 1975:257). Marco Polo certainly counts as the leader among the ardent travelers who went to the East. The founding of the universities in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries stimulated extensive student travel because of their search for truth. The attempt to reconcile reason and revelation further undermined pilgrim piety. Pilgrim hostels were replaced by inns where one could buy food and wine and enjoy paid entertainment, and gambling became a widespread pastime, even among the clergy. The writing of guide books became very popular, including The Delight of Whoso Loves to Make the Circuit of the World (1154 A.D.), a compilation of merchants tales collected by Arab traders. Another, Mandevilles Travels (1357 A.D.), is credited as marking the beginning of mass travel when the first official arrangements were made for safe conduct of travelers, and travel information offices were opened at consulates in Rome, Egypt, and Palestine (Sumpton 1975: 259). Assessing pilgrimages of the Middle Ages, Mullins (1974: 1) concludes that faith in relics was the only spiritual nourishment which made an absurd and nasty world bearable. This concept was soon replaced by the fresh vitality of the Renaissance and the expansionist mercantile opportunities provided by discovery and colonization. The achievements of Arab astronomers in celestial navigation facilitated the haj, which often entailed travel over the trackless deserts of Africa and Asia, as well as lengthy sea journeys in uncharted waters from shores as distant as the Philippines and Java. Their contribution to place geography remained primary until the development of inertial navigation in the present century. Christian Thought (and Travel): I51 7-1859

A.D.

The simple act of nailing a paper on a church door (Martin Luther in 1517 A.D.) effectively changed Western world view. The Protestant Reformation encouraged freedom of thought and ultimately advocated widespread public education using books that the new printing presses provided. Mankind gained the right to study the work of God, thus making possible research on the human body and the development of modern medicine. The political revolutions of 1789 pioneered new standards of equality and self-rule. The Christian schism also separated travel; Catholics continued to be pilgrims, whereas the Protestant rejection of images (saints, relics, and most sculptures) converted their faithful to religious tourism.

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SMITH

Overall, travel for the sake of knowledge became politically feasible and socially sanctioned. Adler (1989), in a richly documented article, places the origins of secular travel and the development of the art of sightseeing in this period. In addition, northern European families sent sons abroad to study the classics in Athens and Rome. When colonies were established in the New World, as well as in Africa and Asia, sons (and sometimes daughters) were sent back home for a proper education. To travel and know the world became a necessary stepping stone to high government office, as well as to careers in the newly formed overseas trading companies. Continued religious persecution on the Continent prompted additional migration to the New World, which in turn stimulated more return travel to visit family back home. Government, as well as privately financed expeditions, undertook adventure travel (exploration) in the Americas, Africa, and around the Pacific. A whole new body of literature, that of travel accounts, maps, and expedition reports, became popular reading. Men of letters began to gather to discuss the new advances, and their learned societies invited speakers and sponsored public lectures. If one could not personally travel, there were exhibitions and fairs where natives captured in foreign lands might be on display, or one could purchase paintings by artists such as George Catlin or Karl Bodmer, who had actually traveled in America and lived among its native populations. During the Industrial Revolution, time and skills were equated with wages, and although abuses of laborers persisted, leisure travel increased especially among young people (Adler 1985). Because of the invention of the steam engine, Thomas Cook became the first tour operator (1841) and in his 50 years in business, eventually sent thousands of the leisured on trips by train and ship to exotic destinations such as Egypt, India, and China. Christian Thought from 1859 to the 1960s

Of the many nineteenth century voyages, the global circumnavigation of The Beagle (1831-1835) had the most profound effect on human world view. The 1859 publication of Charles Darwins The Origin of Species initiated the creation-evolution controversy, the reverberations of which still persist. In contrast to the drama of the Scopes trial and the man-monkey debate, New Thought movements including Christian Science (1879), Theosophy (1875), the I AM Religion (1932), and the Rosicrucian Fellowship (1907) quietly emerged, gained adherents, and constructed new centers or shrines as destinations for religious tourism. The somewhat similar, although earlier, founding (1827) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) is well documented in this issue. Traditional belief in God was being seriously questioned for the first time in two millennia. Simultaneously, the frontiers of knowledge were being widened, with the founding of new sciences such as psychology, anthropology, and sociology. The concept of evolution was a topic for serious discussion, and the sociopolitical implications of evolution in relation to race, language, and culture were examined. To be a ritualbound pilgrim was not in step with this new scholarship.

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INTRODUCTION

New forms of transportation restructured vacation styles in Europe and America. Middle-class families could spend summer vacations with their children at seaside resorts, while the working father commuted to business by train. On a larger scale than ever before, northsouth tourism created the hivernants in the winter sunbelts of the Mediterranean (Nash 1979). Secular travel (Figure le) was clearly in ascendancy, the development of the auto and auto touring followed, and finally there was the rise of mass tourism with the first jet flight in 1959. Shortened work weeks, longer vacations, two-income families, and the demise of the Protestant work ethic served as foundation stones for a near revolution in recreation and leisure. The increase in international travelers in 1960 over 1950 (2.74 times) is the largest percentage of growth shown (Table 1):
Pilgrim-Tourist Path: I96Os to 1990s

The political events that triggered two world wars, combined with the intervening Great Depression, reminded one that the socioeconomic system was fallible. This produced a philosophical crisis in the 196Os, especially among young adults. Social discontent, disregard for traditional authority, and advocacy of a new morality, including the sexual revolution, social use of narcotics, and increased violence (especially against women) in the media, identified some of the changes. As Melton (1990:xvii) summarizes, this was the age when secularization of religion or the process through which religion becomes less of a factor in socio-political matters and in the public domain in general, was deemed irreversible, and when religious beliefs looked as if they were crumbling under the advance of modern science. In retrospect, the Death of God Theology was not a surprising development. From an anthropological perspective, belief in some kind of super natural order was not dead; witness the new television evangelism that attracted millions of US adherents. Born again Christians found renewed meaning from TV pilgrimages, a form of vicarious religious participation. Their emissaries (their donation checks) were a generous outpouring of wealth to build spectacular churches such as the Crystal Cathedral in California, and to fund universities and medical schools (as well as lavish lifestyles for the golden-tongued leaders). Many individuals personally trod a path to participate in religious rites (attend services) in these crowded sanctuaries.
Table 1. International Arrivals (Millions) 25.3 69.3 158.7 204.8 425.0 WTO Secretariat. Travelers % of Increase 100 274 631 1123 1680 and their Expenditures US$ Value (Billions) 2.1 6.9 17.9 102.4 230.0 % of Increase 100 329 852 4,875 10,952

Year 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 Source:

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11

Melton identifies two other events of the 1960s as catalysts for the emergence of the New Age Movement in religion, namely, the admission of the Parapsychological Association into membership of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which effectively legitimized scientific metaphysical thought. Through the metalanguage of transpersonal psychology, one could separate states of mind from religious practices and, thus, practice Zen meditation without becoming a Buddhist. The other (and related) event was the 1965 US government decision to rescind the Asian Exclusion Act, and to institute a new immigration law that allowed Eastern spiritual teachers whose psychology New Agers studied to come to America and share their teaching with a popular Western audience the last days of the 1960s saw the launching of a major missionary thrust by the Eastern religions toward the West (Melton 1990: xxvii). If the teachers came west, thousands of so-called students traveled east, in the great overland movement from Europe (and to a lesser degree from the United States) through Iran and Afghanistan, to India and Nepal. Little studied in tourism, and to date usually dismissed as a form of self-testing (Teas 1988; Vogt 1978), much of this human movement was probably motivated by a search for meaning, for values hidden outside the college textbook, in Native American ways, or from the Eastern gurus. Although they might have disdained so saying, many of these individuals and their counterparts in San Franciscos Haight-Ashbury district were in truth pilgrims (Figure la). The influence of secular education is not confined to Christianity. Launay (1990) develops a case study involving literacy, Western models of thought and traditional Islamic values, and the quests of individuals to establish new religious principles consistent with the locally anchored, hereditary social distinctions characteristic of African tribal Moslems.
The Tourist-Pilgrim Path: The 1990s

The secularization of religion, with the rise of humanism, agnosticism, and Marxist atheism, together with liberation theology, and New Age cults (Melton 1990:xxviii) is well summarized by Wentworth, who identifies three characteristics of the modern world:
(1) The industrial revolution is not over, but it has gone global and forms the largest sociological context on the planet; (2) large-scale religious structures become obsolete as traditions mingle at everincreasing rate; and (3) as a direct result of one and two, religion is a vital, if seething, cauldron of change-combination, rebellion, and creation (1991:123).

Personal belief has been subjected to great stress. Individuals who matured in culturally bound societies, for example, members of the working classes in Catholic Europe and South America, continue to visit traditional shrines and find solace and inspiration as in the pilgrimage scene described by the Nolans (1989:l). Their behavior is

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INTRODUCTION

socially sanctioned, and their faith is supported by a powerful, global institution with an articulate leader, John Paul II. A 1983 survey of visitors at four French shrines (Chartres, Lisieux, Fourvieres, and Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille) provides supporting demographic data: 81% were Catholic; 83 % believed in God; 30 % attended church every week; 53% were women; the largest age group (22%) consisted of young people under age 25; and of the visitors to Chartres, 50% had a university education (Schweyer 1984). Tourism has grown rapidly in recent decades (Table l), but unfortunately no clearinghouse for pilgrimage statistics exists. This data is rare but very useful for tourism planning, for developing infrastructure and meeting multilingual guide requirements; it would also benefit research. Kaplan and Bar-On (1988) undertook, on behalf of the Israel Ministry of Tourism, a 1986-1987 airport survey of the 1.52 million visitors, to determine country of origin, religious affiliation, and purpose of travel. Some 55% of all visitors were Christian (820,000 persons), about 40% of whom indicated their presence was a Holy Land pilgrimage (or about one-fourth of the total visitors). In addition, in that year some 540,000 Jewish visitors and 40,000 Moslems came from abroad, many of whom are also believed to have been pilgrims. These authors further identified the predominant nationalities as US (320,000 visitors, of whom 210,000 were Jewish; 110,000, Christians, 40% of whom said they were pilgrims). Germany was the leading source of Christian visitors (170,000, of whom 40% or about 70,000, were listed as pilgrims); French visitors totaled 165,000 with 35,000 listed as Christian pilgrims; Italy contributed 59,000 visitors, with 40% pilgrims; and Canadians numbered 38,000 visitors, of whom only 20% identified themselves as pilgrims. The survey instrument was a self-administered questionnaire, which raises issues of semantics and self-perception. Were these visitors true pilgrims on a spiritual journey, or were they religious tourists visiting the Holy Land for identity with and knowledge of its historic sites? The Israeli example highlights the need for research that will reveal the symbol systems of various types of travelers, as initially described by Pfaffenberger (1983) and reiterated by Eade and Cohen in this issue. To provide time-depth to pilgrimage studies, especially in the light of modern secularization, Feinberg (1985) reexamined the 1 ,OOOyear-old tradition of pilgrimage to Santiago. His survey indicated that many participants were on individual quests for spiritual meaning in a secular world, and that it is during their prolonged rite of passage that they become pilgrims. Feinberg concludes that only through the emit approach can one learn how people use symbols and ritual to obtain meaning in their lives. Given the dichotomy of cultural perception, as Turnbull ( 198 1b) observes, the Hindu pilgrim to the headwaters of Ganges sees a building that is the shrine, but the tourist is awed by the natural beauty of the site and the magnitude of the physical processes that created such a chain of mountains; at Varanasi, the pilgrim perceives the city as one of the most beautiful of India, while the tourist considers it one of the dirtiest. The opportunities for emit study are almost limitless. In Asia, Bud-

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dhist pilgrimages are an active expression of faith; hundreds of thousands of Westernized Japanese continue their pilgrimages to the Shinto shrine of Mt. Ise each year, or at least visit it as a place of religious tourism (Graburn 198313; Kaplan 1988). In India, Turnbull (1981a: 16) observes that pilgrimage in all its vitality [is] at work in India today, where for the masses tourism is economically unthinkable. With increased personal income, better education, and greater access to Western medicine, will India and other emergent nations follow a pattern parallel to Europe, with increased secularization of belief, and also more pleasure tourism ? The evidence would so suggest, for the metropolitan newspapers of India and Southeast Asia already feature numerous advertisements for domestic tourism within their respective countries, and also publicize promotional air tours, including land arrangements, for overseas tourism. Organized religion in the United States is changing perceptibly in the 1990s as churches recognize their new roles as ethnic centers in a whirl of immigration and refugees. Most denominations now maintain special ministries for counseling and social services, to handle what were considered family functions barely a generation ago. Faced with declining attendance (and consequent diminished income) in their competition with mediated TV evangelists, some churches are turning to tourism to attract new members through a program of activities. Poix (1985) describes tourism as an activity characterized by fleeting acquaintances, and suggests that a new pastoral style could be effective. Outreach programs of travel (as in the Mormon example) and also church-sponsored work projects to provide people-to-people assistance in slum areas or underdeveloped communities are popular and socially cohesive (Gardiner 1981). Each of the eight short essays in Juiff (1990) suggests ways in which religious tourism can be developed for the financial advantage of the church and its members at a pilgrimage site. Tourism is, therefore, now courted as an economic development tool for the sacred, just as nations and communities have already benefited from secular tourism. CONCLUSIONS The pilgrim-tourist path, when viewed in a temporal context juxtaposed with its philosophical counterparts of faith and knowledge, is by no means a simple one-lane track. Throughout history the physical safety and emotional security of an individual depended upon religious conformity. For nearly two millennia, from the birth of Christ to the Nazi concentration camps, individuals whose religious beliefs deviated from the socially and politically prescribed norms of their country or culture were punished by persecution and, often, martyrdom. Thus, travel has long been embodied in whatever form-pilgrimage, exploration, tourism-the local society then sanctioned, and the journey was termed whatever was locally approved. In the 199Os, marketing specialists in the tourist trade believe that baby boomers seek a travel experience. The media uses the term pilgrimage to describe nonsacred activities such as a pilgrimage to New Orleans Blues (music) or

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a pilgrimage to the disappearing rain forests of Costa Rica (ecotourism). In the same past two millennia, the advances in scientific knowledge concerning the nature of the universe and the biota of the planet would defy the imagination of a learned temple teacher at the time of Socrates. Then, warmth and light were generated by a male god whose golden chariot raced across a sky above a flat earth. The subsequent changing perceptions of the universe-from an earth-centered body whose divine creation dated barely 6,000 years, to an infinite universe of several billion years antiquity-has had great impact on the roles of sacred and secular. Free societies now guarantee their citizens freedom of religious belief, but the United States prints In God we Trust on its currency and then bans prayer in the school classrooms. Modern medicine can successfully treat many ailments that once took pilgrims to shrines, but the unresolvable human crises-hunger, poverty, loneliness, unemployment, and bereavement-continue to plague humanity. Belief remains the key element identifying the journey on the pilgrim-tourist path, and the motive can be sacred or secular. In the 199Os, it is increasingly difficult in the Western countries to distinguish between the categories of travelers. Tourists and pilgrims require the same fundamentals of leisure, income, and sanction; they also share the same infrastructure. Another factor that makes differentiation uncertain is the increased privatization of religion in the West. In traditional societies, where few religious options prevail, social sanctions prescribe ritual participation, and most individuals conform rather than risk ridicule, ostracism or worse. Distinctive dressthe shaven head, the beggar bowl, and the saffron robesare still visual emblems of the Buddhist mendicant; and centuries ago, Europeans wore pilgrim grey. However, in the multicultural or plural societies of presentday Europe and North America, individuals increasingly place their religious views backstage in their lives, just as societies have sometimes removed portions of their culture from tourist view to protect them from ridicule. Individuals now have numerous role options, at home, in the workplace, in recreation, and in personal beliefs. It is possible, often desirable, for a 1990s Westerner to refrain from identification of family background, ethnicity, social status, political preference, or religious persuasion. A true pilgrim might be very reluctant to tell coworkers the sacred nature of a planned journey, lest such disclosure somehow alienate a relationship. Instead, the same travel can be described as going on a trip, and the vacation is socially approved. For Westerners who live in a secular, science-oriented society, religious tourism or knowledge-based travel to areas with religious history may well be a convenient rubric to conceal religious convictions and pilgrim motivation. Secular vacations can also have deep personal meaning: in accomplishment (as the climb of all 100 mountain peaks, on the Sierra Club list), finding family roots in ancient graveyards and church records, or even as a death-wish to see the Great Wall. Turnbull (1981a: 14) expresses this concept well; If we are to understand tourism, we must at least examine the possibility that it is a latter-day form of pilgrimage.

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In an important article, Allcock (1988) discusses this concept of privatized tourist experiences as they parallel the privatization of religion, and also suggests tourism should be studied within this theoretical framework. The terms pilgrimage and tourism both define cultural constructs, or concepts about specific categories of people who travel for differing reasons. As the historical review of the pilgrimtourist path suggests, the cultural sanctions that define pilgrims and tourists are closely linked to prevailing socio-economic-political thought, and change through time. However, most travelers seem to share one common theme: a search for betterment of life. Turnbull (1981b:81) comments that both forms of quest stimulate dreams that, however unmatched by reality, have the ability to enrich and enlighten, giving the dreamer fresh hope and fresh life. Because of the increased secularization of religion in the West, distinctions between pilgrim and tourist are quite diffuse. As a consequence, Turnbull (1981a: 14) may be correct in that one has to think in terms of alternative categories of quest, sacred or secular, rather than in terms of alternative institutions. Thus, perhaps the pilgrimtourist path should ultimately be redefined as two parallel, interchangeable lanes, one of which is the secular knowledge-based route of Western science; the other, the sacred road of faith and belief. Then every guest worldwide could travel either lane, or switch between them, depending on personal need or motivation, and as appropriate to time, place, and cultural circumstances. 0 0

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