Location
Monserrat
Start Date
26-6-2026 12:30 PM
End Date
26-6-2026 2:00 PM
Description
This paper presents a critical and systematized literature review of how sacred spaces and sites are conceptualized within tourism studies. Although research increasingly engages with religious, spiritual, heritage, and secular sites, the concept of 'sacredness' is frequently employed without explicit definition or consistent theoretical grounding, often leading to an analytical ambiguity between traditional devotion and contemporary heritage consumption. Consequently, the central question this study addresses is: In what ways is tourism scholarship conceptualizing sacrality, and what is being overlooked in the process. To address this, the study examines dominant disciplinary perspectives, the types of spaces analysed, and the positioning of tourism in relation to sacralization and commodification. Furthermore, it explores the social dimension of representation, analysing the extent to which diverse groups specifically migrants, indigenous peoples, gender perspectives, youth, people with disabilities, and religious minorities are acknowledged within a multi-dimensional framework of inclusion.
The methodology follows a mixed-methods systematic review: quantitative trends, citation networks, and keyword co-occurrences were mapped using Bibliometric (R) with data from Scopus and Web of Science, followed by a qualitative content analysis using Atlas.ti and a manual analytical matrix for the systematic evaluation of the selected texts. The expected results aim to identify conceptual gaps and emerging trends, ultimately proposing a more inclusive theoretical framework for future research.
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Included in
J2) Whose Sacredness? A Systematized Review of Theoretical Grounding and Social Representation in Tourism Studies
Monserrat
This paper presents a critical and systematized literature review of how sacred spaces and sites are conceptualized within tourism studies. Although research increasingly engages with religious, spiritual, heritage, and secular sites, the concept of 'sacredness' is frequently employed without explicit definition or consistent theoretical grounding, often leading to an analytical ambiguity between traditional devotion and contemporary heritage consumption. Consequently, the central question this study addresses is: In what ways is tourism scholarship conceptualizing sacrality, and what is being overlooked in the process. To address this, the study examines dominant disciplinary perspectives, the types of spaces analysed, and the positioning of tourism in relation to sacralization and commodification. Furthermore, it explores the social dimension of representation, analysing the extent to which diverse groups specifically migrants, indigenous peoples, gender perspectives, youth, people with disabilities, and religious minorities are acknowledged within a multi-dimensional framework of inclusion.
The methodology follows a mixed-methods systematic review: quantitative trends, citation networks, and keyword co-occurrences were mapped using Bibliometric (R) with data from Scopus and Web of Science, followed by a qualitative content analysis using Atlas.ti and a manual analytical matrix for the systematic evaluation of the selected texts. The expected results aim to identify conceptual gaps and emerging trends, ultimately proposing a more inclusive theoretical framework for future research.