Religion – Travel – Youth: An Approach Based on an Empirical Study

This paper approaches the topic of religious tourism among young people, starting from theoretical aspects in the literature and continuing with the presentation of the main results of an empirical study conducted among young people in Bucharest, Romania, aged between 15 and 19. Religious travel is one of the oldest types of tourism in the world (some authors even state it is the oldest). This has been a means for people to try and discover themselves and divinity as well as to validate their faith. Given that it has stood the test of time, religious travel has taken on a much more complex role within tourism, including other aspects such as, for instance, curiosity and the desire to learn about elements belonging to other cultures. The research is based upon the completion of a questionnaire in the period March-April 2019, whose findings were centralised and used with the aim of fulfilling three objectives: O1 - Establishing the youth's perception of cultural and religious development and the role of religious travel; O2 - Identifying the respondents' level of interest in cultural and religious sights; O3 - Obtaining information regarding the requirements for organizing and undertaking a cultural and religious journey. The findings confirm the fact that religion and its resources are sufficiently appealing to the majority of young people, and form part of the tourism they practice or of their sightseeing intentions.