Religious Tourism as Strategy for Local Development in Lunardelli, Brasil and El Rincón, Cuba

Abstract

In religious tourism the main reason for the trip is faith, which moves thousands of people in the world to visit sacred places, make an offering, ask for a favor, fulfill a promise made or simply continue with a tradition. Likewise, non-religious people are attracted to these destinations out of curiosity or in order to acquire historical-cultural knowledge. This article aims to address the main socio-territorial impacts of this activity in two small towns, one in Brazil and the other in Cuba. The purpose is to analyze how tourism can contribute to local development in Lunardelli, municipality of Paraná, by the Santa Rita de Cassia Sanctuary and the town of El Rincón, with the San Lázaro National Sanctuary. The result of this research is to highlight how tourism can become the driving force behind the sustainable development of small towns. From the methodological point of view, this research is exploratory and qualitative in nature, it was carried out on the basis of a bibliographic review and observation visits to the places with the application of open interviews.