The Pilgrimage & the Evolution of Spiritual Tourism International Conference took place on 9 March 2018 at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT). In a new collaboration the Spirituality Institute for Research and Education (SpIRE) in Dublin and the Department of Languages, Tourism, and Hospitality at the School of Humanities at WIT organised the first conference of its kind in Ireland.

The conference was attended by people of diverse interests from the four corners of Ireland as well as from Germany, Luxembourg, Romania, the UK, the USA, and Canada. According to Michael O’Sullivan, Director of SpIRE and the conference coordinator, the event reflected an international multi-faith phenomenon in which an estimated 200 million people around the world engage in pilgrimage every year. “With ecological concerns becoming more prevalent the idea of going on pilgrimage is a way of evoking and expressing a spirituality connected with the natural world”, he added.

The time-table of the conference included a welcoming by WIT. SpIRE staff and keynote talks were from Dr Dee Dyas of York University; Dr Stefano Dominioni of the European Institute of Cultural Routes; and John O’Dwyer of Pilgrim Path Ireland. There were parallel sessions of short papers which consisted of twelve presenters covering topics such as Celtic Spirituality, St Willibrord, tour guides, Medjugorje, the Hildegard Pilgrimage Way, and the Holy Land. There were visiting stands which represented a number of organisations. At one of them Brendan McManus SJ was present with his book Redemption Road: Grieving on the Camino. A plenary session concluded the event, led by Dr Bernadette Flanagan of SpIRE and Dr Pat Lynch of WIT. See below for a brief summary of the sessions.

The conference situated the popular revival of Irish pilgrim paths in an international context, which provided an opportunity to discuss the potential for Ireland as a sustainable spiritual tourism destination. It also had in mind questions like: Why have human beings across otherwise diverse cultures and periods so often been inclined to identify places as special and map meaning on to them?; How is the notion of pilgrimage prompting us to reconceptualise our understanding of spiritual tourism?; How will integrating the current interest in pilgrimage into tourism initiatives challenge and re-invent current practice?; What new research and practice frontiers lie ahead as we contemplate the next decade of pilgrimage tourism?

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