Sustainable Mini Pilgrimage in Urban Spaces: Suburban Calvaries in Budapest

Introduction

Religious heritage is way more common than most people would imagine. Sacred places in Europe represent an important part of the European heritage, and many of them are related to religious buildings (Nolan, 1992), which count over half a million buildings on the continent. No wonder that approximately 20 percent of the properties inscribed on the World Heritage List managed by UNESCO have a distinctive religious or spiritual connection (UNWTO, 2023). Each year, nearly 300 million people visit religious sites all over the world (40% taking place in Europe) and journeys mixing sightseeing with religious or spiritual experiences are far the most popular (Cohen & Cohen, 2014). So, religious tourism has always been more than a niche type of tourism. In spite of that healthy demand, there are still some types of religious sites which have been overlooked by both scholars and tourists. For instance, no specific research was carried out on calvary visitations, in fact, they might be one of the most underresearched areas within the context of tourism. This hiatus is somewhat surprising since calvaries are very complex in terms of history, architecture and symbolism.

Many popular religious sites located in urban environment such as churches and temples are suffering from overtourism. The reason being is that they are often one of the most recognisable landmarks in many European cities such as the cathedrals in Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, or Milan. COVID-19 was an intermezzo in terms of tourist flow, providing some years of relief, however, sustainability should be readdressed, otherwise, cities will become even more unmanageable than before. Surely, the problem was raised in the academic arena, scholars like Bouchon and Rauscher (2019) investigated European cities finding that cities regardless of their sizes have been suffering from touristification due to the easiness to travel and the ability for tourists to blend in. The conclusion of their research was a call for holistic destination management. Similarly, Amore et. al. (2019) was also concerned with the degree of overtourism in European cities. Jover and Diaz-Para (2020) argue that tourism unsustainability from a social perspective should be investigated as well, as local communities are slowly physically blocked from accessing vital local infrastructure and services. Vetitnev et. al. (2021) explores the situation, taking the example of Sochi, signalling already some mild problems between residents and visitors. Abbasian et. al. (2020) gives a thorough account of the overcrowding situation at the Croatian costal destination, Dubrovnik.

Overtourism has been dissected by the ample volume of literature, however, easily implemented practical solutions are few and far in between. One of the solutions implemented in several cities is charging entry fees, for instance 3-10 euros depending on the season are levied for day-trippers in Venice. This might contribute healthily to the city budget, but a couple of euros will not deter tourists from flocking to the destination of their choice. Tourism scholars, planners and practitioners have to resign to the fact that city breakers will not change their motivation easily. Furthermore, the travel restrictions during COVID-19 have also proved that even overcrowded cities need tourist spending to prosper. As international tourist arrivals dropped by 73% in 2020 and by 72% in 2021, compared to 2019 levels (Atout France, 2022), most countries with a substantial tourism sector felt the consequences economically.