Territorial and marketing strategies related to religious tourism in Northern Moldavia, Romania

Ibănescu, Bogdan-Constantin; Munteanu, Alina; Stoleriu, Oana Mihaela Article Territorial and marketing strategies related to religious tourism in Northern Moldavia, Romania CES Working Papers Provided in Cooperation with: Centre for European Studies, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University Suggested Citation: Ibănescu, Bogdan-Constantin; Munteanu, Alina; Stoleriu, Oana Mihaela (2018) : Territorial and marketing strategies related to religious tourism in Northern Moldavia, Romania, CES Working Papers, ISSN 2067-7693, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Centre for European Studies, Iasi, Vol. 10, Iss. 1, pp. 129-148 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/198537 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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If the documents have been made available under an Open Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CES Working Papers – Volume X, Issue 1 129 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License Territorial and marketing strategies related to religious tourism in Northern Moldavia, Romania Bogdan-Constantin IBĂNESCU*, Alina MUNTEANU **, Oana Mihaela STOLERIU *** Abstract Religious tourism represents an important segment of the present Romanian tourism market, with monasteries being constantly well ranked in the preferences of foreign or domestic visitors. Every year the number of religious tourists and pilgrims in Romania is increasing, as well as the number of religious events. In this context, religious destinations try to adapt to a dual orientation of the visitors’ interests and practices: cultural tourism and pilgrimage. This study aims to identify patterns in the strategies aiming to attract pilgrims and/or tourists, in reaction to an increasing national and regional competition. By mapping the results, specific spatial structures were identified, in relation with this dichotomy of practices and communication strategies. Major pilgrimage destinations demonstrate a remarkable adaptability of the experiences and services provided to tourists, while famous cultural and religious destinations tend to delocalise their marketing strategies towards regional and national institutions and tourism agencies. Keywords: religious tourism, pilgrimage, marketing strategy, Romania Introduction Cultural tourism represents an important segment of the present Romanian tourism market, dominating the preferences of the foreign tourists visiting Romania (Vana and Malanescu, 2016). According to the Master Plan for the development of National Tourism 2007 – 2026 (RMRDT, 2007), cultural routes were the most appreciated tourism packages by the foreigners who visited Romania in the first part of the 2000´s, overranking traditional health tourism destinations, the Danube Delta, cruises on the Black Sea, city breaks and the Black Sea coast. Cultural tourism attracted mostly German, Austrian, French, Spanish, British and Italian visitors with an average age over 55 years, and their interest was generally focused on the UNESCO labelled sites. Therefore, the clusters of * Bogdan-Constantin IBĂNESCU is researcher at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in European Studies, Faculty of Law, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, e-mail: iba[email protected]. **Alina MUNTEANU is researcher at the Research Department, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, e-mail: alina.muntea[email protected]. *** Oana Mihaela STOLERIU is lecturer at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania, e-mail: [email protected]. CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Bogdan-Constantin IBĂNESCU, Alina MUNTEANU, Oana Mihaela STOLERIU 130 monasteries located in famous Romanian tourism regions and representing twenty four of the thirty three UNESCO heritage destinations in Romania, are almost always included in the itineraries proposed to foreign visitors. The number of cultural - religious tourists has constantly increased in Romania, as well as the number of pilgrims, religious destinations and events. Very often, tourists and pilgrims share the same tourism products: churches, monasteries and/or religious itineraries. This trend was sustained by a general orientation of cultural tourism and tourists towards tradition and authenticity, simultaneously with an increasing popularity of pilgrimage and pilgrimage sites and an increasing number of churches. Or most of the famous religious-cultural attractions are situated in the most important ethnographical tourism regions (eight in Nord-Eastern Romania, seven in Transylvania, eight at North (in the Maramures region) with strong identities and well preserved heritage. Beyond their high cultural value, some of these churches (especially the ones in Northern Moldavia) are traditional pilgrimage sites. Furthermore, the general popularity of places of worship increased, a fact reflected by a general growth in the number of churches and monasteries (between 2006 and 2013 the number of monasteries went up from 519 to 647). Some of these places tend to develop a pilgrimage orientation, which sustains their visibility, while others tend to develop a cultural tourism orientation. Although the two approaches do not exclude each other, different approaches in promoting strategies are required. In this context, dual territorial and marketing strategies are adopted by different religious destinations, in their efforts to consolidate a traditional, local social function, but also to adapt to a dual orientation of the visitors’ interests and practices, related to cultural tourism and pilgrimage. Additional local, regional or national actors with different levels of power and benefits sometimes get involved in these strategies, differentiating the evolution of places with similar cultural or tourism value. 1. Religious tourism and pilgrimage – between conceptual confusion and practical overlapping The positioning of pilgrimage in the modern classifications seems one of Gordian Knots of tourism studies in the beginning of XXIst century. Confusion, inclusion, association or dissociation successively or simultaneously characterized the relation between pilgrimage and religious tourism in the scientific literature. But what really represent these two terms (pilgrimage and religious tourism) and how do they interact? CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Territorial and marketing strategies related to religious tourism in Northern Moldavia, Romania 131 Technically, pilgrimage means a ritual displacement to a holy or committed place (Brunet, 1992) and it can exist at three different levels – local/regional, national and international. The typically holy place is a spiritual building (church, synagogue, mosque, or temple), somehow related to significant moments in the life of a religious personality (born, death, critical decisions), but sometimes it can be just a ruin, a spot, an entire region or a natural element. Spiritually, pilgrimage is seen as a self-searching journey, a moral purification or even a personal achievement, all these three meanings having different proportion according to the believer’s personal scale. The pilgrimage is a geographical and social separation from the mundane (Carasco, 1996). We witness today a significant growth of the pilgrimage phenomenon in the whole world, strongly supported by the development of the travel system which reduced the difficulties for the people living on different continents, sharing the same religion, to reach the pilgrimage sites (Reader, 2007). We can affirm that, according to the above definition, pilgrims practice a form of tourism, because they fit in the international definition of tourists given by the WTO: travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes (UNWTO, 1995). But the question is: if the pilgrimage is a form of tourism, is this a form of religious tourism, or a new, segregated one, with its own approach? Generally, the literature makes a difference between these two forms of travel, based on the motivational factor. Many authors insist on the personal motivation and beliefs to make a strict difference between pilgrims and religious tourists, reasoning this classification mainly on psychologically elements (Swatos, 2006; Blackwell, 2007; Mu et. al., 2007). This delineation introduces a strong and difficult dichotomy, which allows very few manoeuvres for the epistemological approaches. The dominant reason for going on a pilgrimage is usually to request some favour of God or the shrine divinity in return for simply having made the journey or for engaging in ancillary devotional exercises (Eade and Sallnow, 1991, cit. in Rountree, 2006). We can name the pilgrimage as a double travel (inside and outside) unlike the “pure” tourism, which allows only an outside travel. On the other hand, some authors consider that the separation between tourism and pilgrimage is somehow brutal and illegitimate, despite the motivational hiatus, so they prefer the composite phrase “pilgrim tourism” (Griffin, 2007), which describes better the phenomenon. Furthermore, a “reconciliation” and a re-evaluation of the pilgrimage – tourism relations are needed for cutting up the dichotomy, dichotomy which resulted only as a product of modernity (Collins-Kreiner, 2010a). In fact, both pilgrims and tourists are mainly motivated by the heritage, but each one chooses a different side (spiritual or cultural). CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Bogdan-Constantin IBĂNESCU, Alina MUNTEANU, Oana Mihaela STOLERIU 132 It seems that the two categories (pilgrimage and religious tourism) are more related and connected that the motivational argument would argue. They often overlap and often we see pilgrims taking benefit from their voyage to visit something else (Rocha, 2006) After all, a tourist is half a pilgrim, if a pilgrim is half a tourist (Turner and Turner, 1978; Swatos, 2006). Still, it is very difficult to chart a strict line between pilgrims and tourists. Persons who go on pilgrimage, hence, are expected to have an underlying religious motivation for their action. Yet we also know […] that all pilgrimages were events of mixed motivation. (Swatos, 2006, p. 25). A third acceptance is the one including pilgrimage in the religious tourism. It seems that the pilgrimage is nothing but a class in the big concept of religious tourism, which includes also the missionary or the leisure tourism (Blackwell, 2007). In fact, religious tourism represents the totality of the travels to the holy or religious important places, despite the tourists’ motivation. Pilgrimage is the first form of religious tourism preceding historically all the other forms. The inclusion of pilgrimage in the religious tourism flows could be seen as controversial as the inclusion of business trips in tourism (different motivation, same effect), but nevertheless, this choice looks legitimate. Anyway, sharing the same visiting destination does not produce a competition between these two forms of tourism (Blackwell, 2007) but more likely a collaboration 1 , a productive symbiosis. However, our present society is confronted with a new form of pilgrimage, which imposes the necessity to re-evaluate pilgrimage. There are two major forms of pilgrimage: the religious one, discussed above, and the secular one 2 . Despite the relative oxymoron, the second form has developed more and more in the second half of XXth century. It is about the pilgrimage associated with wellknown personalities (such as the prison of Nelson Mandela, the grave of Jim Morrison from PèreLachaise cemetery), patriotism related monuments or places (the web of revolutionary monuments from all around the China), stadiums hosting great sport events and even modern shopping areas (Collins-Kreiner, 2010b; Rioux, 2010). Figure 1. Pilgrimage and tourism as a continuum of travel Pilgrimage Religious tourism Tourism A B C D E Sacred Faith/profane knowledge-based Secular Source: after Smith, 1992 1 A pure pilgrimage well-known destination transform itself in a trending cultural destination, the appearance of the second form of visiting being just the result of the first one’s success. 2 Apparently, the overuse of “pilgrimage” word which started in the ‘80s and its association with non-religious related terms had a major impact for the birth of secular pilgrimage (as a term, not as an activity). CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Territorial and marketing strategies related to religious tourism in Northern Moldavia, Romania 133 The large variety of opinions considered, we decided to adopt a conciliatory and proper approach, based on the continuum of travel created by pilgrimage and religious tourism (Smith, 1992). This continuum of travel indicates the progressive relation between these two concepts (Figure 1). The “A” zone contains the pious (pure) pilgrims, the “B” zone refers to pilgrim > tourist relation, the pilgrims with a main faith related motivation, but scooted by other secondary motivations, the “C” zone designates a relative equality pilgrim = tourist, thus a double motivation, the “D” class applies on tourist > pilgrim relation, the opposite of B zone, with a secondary faith motivation, and at last the “E” zone, the secular tourist, without faith motivation, but only leisure or cultural one. Figure 2. The positioning of case study area in Europe Source: own representation This paper analyses different actors and strategies built around religious places and events in Northern Moldavia (Figure 2). While those strategies are built in order to deliver specific experiences to tourists and pilgrims, and also to increase the additional economic or social territorial benefits for both cultural tourism destinations and pilgrimage destinations, their approach tend to be rather different. CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Bogdan-Constantin IBĂNESCU, Alina MUNTEANU, Oana Mihaela STOLERIU 134 2. Research hypothesis and methodological approach Our research hypothesis is that the pilgrimage-oriented destinations have built better territorial and marketing strategies in the last two decades, in comparison with the destinations with a stronger religious-cultural orientation, which have rather preferred to take benefit from supporting national and regional tourism strategies or development programmes. We believe that pilgrimage sites were motivated to develop better promotion tools compared to the UNESCO monasteries in order to compensate the lack of famous international labels or general national tourism popularity. They were helped in this aim by different other stakeholders interested in the high visibility of pilgrimage events. This paper analyses these different actors and strategies built around religious places and events, in the aim of delivering specific experiences to tourists and pilgrims, but also to increase the additional economic or social territorial benefits. Figure 3. Main religious tourism destinations in Romania Source: own representation The study focuses on a sample of 21 representative religious destinations from a relatively continuous (historical and tourism) region – Northern Moldavia. The 21 case studies are the monasteries and churches of Arbore, Humor, Moldovita, Patrauti, Probota, Suceava, Voronet, Sucevita, Dragomirna, Putna, Metropolitan Church, Sihastria, Secu, Varatec, Agapia, Neamt, Sihla, Pangarati, Cosula, Zosin and Vorona - Figure 3. CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Territorial and marketing strategies related to religious tourism in Northern Moldavia, Romania 135 The three main categories of religious destination from this region are represented in our case studies selection: 8 UNESCO sites, 12 major national/regional pilgrimage destinations and the most significant Moldavian pilgrimage centre, with a national polarization area and which coincides with the main religious administrative centre (the Metropolitan centre in Iasi). The sample is large enough to ensure a valid overview on national, regional and local practices related to religious tourism and diverse enough to reveal quality information about specific (local or regional) dynamics and strategies. If the UNESCO sites are considered cultural masterpieces that are well-known nationally and internationally, the 12 main pilgrimage destinations were chosen not only because of their undeniable heritage, but also because of the pilgrim attraction. Multiple indicators were analysed in order to identify and delineate these specific territorial and marketing strategies, such as: public and private investment priorities in tourism, the role of religious tourism in territorial development strategies, specific destination management (organization, type of event, types of actors involved) and targeted audience. For a higher clarity, we chose to use the generic term of monastery to designate all the religious places included in the case study: monasteries, convents and cloisters. They are in fact differentiated by religious importance or administrative organization, with low scientific interest in this analysis. 3. Actors and strategies related to Romanian religious tourism and pilgrimage Tourism (religious) places are complex mixes of material objects, companies, workers, local civil societies, the local state with the co-presence of other forms of the state, and all kinds of practices, values, and multiple identities. They are shaped by the sequence of roles which each has played in the spatial division both of tourism and of other economic activities (Gareth and Williams, 2004). Different actors with different territorialities intersect public or private strategies or practices related to religious attractions and events, thus creating places with evolving identities. Within or outside the official administrative boundaries of regional development regions (NUTS 2), counties (equivalent of NUTS 3) and municipalities, new territories and synergies are shaped by church administration limits (metropolitan sees), pilgrimage sites and major tourism itineraries. CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Bogdan-Constantin IBĂNESCU, Alina MUNTEANU, Oana Mihaela STOLERIU 136 3.1 The place of religious tourism and pilgrimage in regional development strategies. Public actors - tourism and planning Public stakeholders have different approaches and rankings for the role of tourism (and religious tourism in particular) within the general territorial development. Different strategies were elaborated at different administrative and geographical levels, approaching religious tourism in different forms, such as: territorial strength for future development, tourism motivation included or delineated from general cultural tourism flows, opportunity for increasing the attraction of a region and building a potential brand or, simply as a factor with no significant influence for the future territorial development, over ranked by other forms of tourism or by other economic and social factors. The Master Plan for the development of National Tourism 2007 – 2026 (RMRDT, 2007) considers the religious heritage (namely the UNESCO sites and 12800 orthodox sites, including 380 monasteries and 2400 places with historical and architectural value) as an important asset (and a special chapter) of the national tourism potential. Still, this heritage is not related to pilgrimage and religious tourism, only to the cultural tourism flows. The only religious attractions mentioned in the national strategies are the UNESCO monasteries of Suceava County, associated with ecotourism in the National Strategy for the development of Ecotourism in Romania. Significant differences in the approach of tourism and religious tourism were observed among the territorial development strategies set up for the 8 development regions (equivalent of NUTS 2) in Romania. For example, the importance granted to “tourism” in general 3 is higher in the strategies for the Nord-Vest, Sud-Vest and Centru Development Regions (with averages of 0.73, 0.71 and 0.62 occurrences/page), medium for the capital city region (0.42 occurrences /page) and it decreases to only 0.18 and 0.13 occurrences per page, in the case of Nord-Est (the region where the counties from the Northern Moldavia are included) and Sud Regions. For the Nord-Est Region, the elaboration of a specific tourism plan, a different strategy focused only on tourism development, could be an explanation of the low frequency values. Excepting the Nord-Est and Sud-Vest regions, religious tourism is mentioned as a part of cultural tourism. Surprisingly, pilgrimage, as an individualized form of tourism is only twice mentioned in the strategy for Northern Moldavia (Nord-Est region), where it already represents a well-known tourism product. 3 Measured by the occurrences frequency of this term. CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Territorial and marketing strategies related to religious tourism in Northern Moldavia, Romania 143 investments are made in order to improve the quality of access routes and increase the visitors’ number. Transport services, both private and public, react to the opportunity of the temporarily increased demand caused by religious events. For example since 2010 the Parish Fair of Putna Monastery induced the addition of three more regional train connections for two days. During the annual pilgrimage in Iasi, the number of trains and (mini) buses converging to the city increases significantly. Even potentially new flight connections based on pilgrimage are sustained by the major national public stakeholders (like sector ministries). Following the success of Iasi festivities in 2011 among a group of Macedonian official guests, the prefect of Iasi publicly announced the initiative to develop a flight connection between Romania and Macedonia (Iasi-Skopje), based on the high popularity of Saint Parascheva of Iasi among the Macedonian believers, where the saint is considered a divine protector 7 . About one month later, the ministry of tourism at that time announced a meeting between tour operators and airways companies from Israel and Romania, in order to create better (flight) connections between Israel and Romanian regions such as Bukovina, Transylvania and health tourism resorts 8 , the ministry supporting the creation of direct charter flights to Bukovina. 5. Tourism attractiveness of religious destinations in Northern Moldova The counties of Suceava and Neamt are, as always, the traditionally visited sites for their unique churches and monasteries (Figure 4). Their long-time existence and their cultural and religious value are of prime significance for the pilgrim tourists. When analysing the dynamics of tourist arrivals in the last 16 years, these two counties have accommodated a relatively constant number of tourists. The presence of UNESCO sites in the county of Suceava, is a factor of enormous importance for international tourists, while the pilgrimage centres from Neamt county attracts a high number of national tourists. Two different patterns of tourist distribution can be observed in the map: a uniform distribution can be observed on the western part of the studied area that overlaps Suceava and Neamt counties. Undeniably, their cultural heritage, as well as the specific landscape constitute de main attractions for tourists. For the rest of the analysed territory, there is a clumped distribution of tourists that rather 7 Find out more at: http://www.jurnalul.ro/observator/exportam-moaste-si-importam-pelerini-cheia-afurisirii-saraciei-inromania-593161.htm, consulted 10 Oct 2017. 8 See: http://www.gandul.info/news/udrea-vrea-sa-i-aduca-pe-israelieni-in-bucovina-transilvania-si-statiuni-balneare9001669, consulted on 3 May 2017 CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Bogdan-Constantin IBĂNESCU, Alina MUNTEANU, Oana Mihaela STOLERIU 144 prefer to visit places within and on the outskirts of urban areas that can offer them diverse tourist attractions. Most of the UNESCO sites have attracted a significant number of tourists during the analyzed period of time, especially since the year 2007, when Romania has been integrated within the EU's structure. But the real boom in tourist arrivals has been registered in areas away from any UNESCO site, but mostly close to important monasteries with strong heritage and symbolism (the case of Putna, Agapia). Figure 4. Tourist arrivals and tourist dynamics in Northern Moldova Source: own representation On the other side, the religious sites of Botosani have not been able to develop tourist activities in order to attract and hold on to the tourists. In most of the county, no tourist arrival has been registered during the last 16 years. The rural profile of Botosani and the poor state of the transport infrastructure have much inhibited tourist travel towards the main religious centres within Botosani County and, overall, towards any potential tourist attraction. Significant differences of visibility, specialization (cultural, pilgrimage, ethnographical), polarization area and territorial impact can be observed for example between UNESCO labelled CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Territorial and marketing strategies related to religious tourism in Northern Moldavia, Romania 145 churches and pilgrimage centres with higher regional impact of UNESCO labelled monasteries, but a stronger local impact for pilgrimage destinations. However, the importance of individual strategies is overranking the label or the main type of visitors, for example the strong popularity and polarization differences between Voronet and Arbore Monasteries, both UNESCO labelled and separated by only 36 km. Conclusions Overall, the study confirms the initial research hypothesis. The 18 religious places included in the case-study confirmed the fact that Romanian religious destinations tend to elaborate different territorial and promotion strategies, trying to better capitalize their assets (such as the UNESCO label) and shaping their main orientation (to culturalreligious tourism or pilgrimage). All religious destinations generally have a significant territorial impact, reflected into and by the emergence of complex and mixed development and marketing strategies, with multiple stakeholders and target groups. Public and private actors, from different domains intersect their actions and interests in order to consolidate the image of a religious destination and to deliver specific experiences to a mostly dual targeted audience: pilgrims and tourists. The impact goes from temporary changes in landscape (territorial extension, functional zoning, contrasting territorial practices), to a long term evolution of attitudes and popularity (tourist and religious) and significant financial investments. Still, the element missing from the all these overlapping strategies and interests is integration. The simultaneous use of different channels, instruments and priorities in the capitalization of similar territorial resources and opportunities still has a low positive impact, at least at larger, regional level and in relation with the real potential of this area. Two major orientations were observed. On one hand, major public stakeholders adopt a rather traditional approach (punctual tourism information centres), restricted to administrative borders and instruments (investments in large projects) and with slower (long term) territorial effects. On the other hand, individual management and marketing strategies with precise, short term targets and faster visible effects are stimulated to further develop. Specific individual approaches are conceived focusing on the development and capitalization of competitive advantages and strategies, between different religious sites. Thus, the monasteries lacking high level tourism labels (UNESCO) or an old tourism tradition, are much more motivated to adopt new, innovative marketing strategies (such as niche specializations, pilgrimage, specific events CES Working Papers | 2018 - volume X(1) | wwww.ceswp.uaic.ro | ISSN: 2067 - 7693 | CC BY Bogdan-Constantin IBĂNESCU, Alina MUNTEANU, Oana Mihaela STOLERIU 146 etc), to create or highlight additional attractions (like new sacred relics, specific processions to other sacred places – caves, tombs). References. Banica, M. (2016), Coach Pilgrimage: Religion, pilgrimage, and tourism in contemporary Romania, Tourist Studies, 16 (1). Blackwell, R. 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