Contextualising fulfilment in faith-based tourism to Malta within the pilgrim-tourist dichotomy

Abstract

Pilgrimage has been with humanity for a very long time, probably as long as humans travelled the world for religious purposes. Tourism has been linked to pilgrimage presumably along the same stretch of time, which has given rise to many discussions and qualifications of pilgrims and tourists. One of the leading motivations for pilgrimage has been, and still is, the phenomenon of fulfilment. Fulfilment is then the fil rouge running through this work. Malta has a demonstrable long cultural history and religious continuity of roughly 7,200 years, throughout which time many have considered it a sacred island due to the large number of authentic religious sites covering so small an area of land. This thesis also looks into the question why Malta, notwithstanding its long history and many authentic sites, never has developed to a full-scale pilgrims’ destination and if this can, or should be, remedied. In this complexity, fulfilment runs through the theoretical and practical issues that appear on a macro-level regarding the faith-based tourism infrastructure, niche markets, sustainability and site and destination management. On a micro-level, fulfilment plays a crucial role in authenticity and continuation of religion, core elements of faith-based tourism product Malta. Further matters, such as shared space, interpretation, preparation, self-definition, multi-vocality and diversity of both religion and religiosity are important elements which contextualise fulfilment in faith-based tourism to Malta.