| Popis: |
This diploma thesis focuses on the motives and attitudes of tourists approaching pilgrimage destinations. It is aimed to find out what are the primary motives of the tourists approaching French pilgrimage site Taizé which is located in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region. Moreover, it is intended to identify if (and how) the tourists’ attitudes have changed after they visited the pilgrimage site. The theoretical part is devoted to religious tourism with its focus on pilgrimages within the context of Europe. It is captured there how the importance and meaning of pilgrimage has been changing throughout the history. Likewise, the contemporary forms of pilgrimage tourism are recognized there. The attention is paid to motives and attitudes of contemporary pilgrims in contrast to the prototype of the pilgrim from the earlier times. Subsequently, the Taizé pilgrimage site, including its specifics, is introduced, and characterized there. Within the practical part, based on twenty semi-structured interviews which were held during the fieldwork, primary data are qualitatively analyzed in order to identify tourists’ motives and their attitudes. The results of a conducted research show that the main motive why tourist approach Taizé was not linked to religious motives but rather curiosity and desire to discover something new. The initiative to visit Taizé often came from another person (friend, acquaintance, or family member) who invited the interviewee to Taizé. Attending the program in Taizé did not cause a revision of the value system in the majority of cases, rather it strengthened already established values. All visitors agreed that Taizé positively influenced interpersonal relationships and attitudes towards different churches as well as religions because obtained experience led individuals to reconciliation and greater tolerance. These conclusions correspond with the main idea of the founder of the pilgrimage site, Roger Schütz. |
