SECULAR PILGRIMS ON THE QUEST FOR AUTHENTICITY?
SECULAR PILGRIMS ON THE QUEST FOR AUTHENTICITY?

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I will explore the relation between the tourist and the place visited drawing on my own fieldwork among Finnish tourists in many Mediterranean tourist destinations, like Athens and Rhodes in Greece and Bodrum in Turkey, as well as Gran Canaria in Spain and Aqaba in Jordan. I will show that the tourists’ relations to the place visited varies very much. In some types of recreational mass tourism to beach resorts the local heritage or the spirit of place is of marginal importance. In other types of tourism, like cultural tourism to Athens, the importance of the place is central to the tourist experience and, thus, the journey can be described as a secular pilgrimage.

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