Religious Tourism:
The Way to Santiago
David Mashhadigholam Rojo
MA EUROPEAN TOURISM MANAGEMENT 2006/2007 Bournemouth University
Fachhochschule Heilbronn
material or data from other authors or sources which are not acknowledged and identified in the prescribed manner. I have read the section in the Student Handbook on Assessment Offences and understand that such offences may lead the Examinations Board to withhold or withdraw the award of Master of Arts.
20 August 2007 David Mashhadi
Religious tourism and pilgrimages are one of the oldest forms of tourism. The present dissertation focuses on the increase of non religious tourists into religious sites. This increase is influenced by different types of motivation. A literature review on tourism motivation will clarify the reasons the tourists have in order to travel to one specific destination. These motivations differ one from another according to the tourist’s personal beliefs.
Santiago de Compostela, part from UNESCO’s World Heritage List and one of the three more important sites of pilgrimage for Christianity, together with Rome and Jerusalem, is the place chosen to carry out a case-study where the increase of non religious tourists into Santiago will be analysed
The Way of Santiago, the different Ways and its history, take part in this dissertation, since Santiago de Compostela is the last stage and the final destination for all the pilgrims coming from any of the Ways. Most of these pilgrims have turned nowadays into religious tourism consumers.
A quantitative research was undertaken to measure the motivations the tourists have visiting Santiago de Compostela. In order to measure their motivations, a questionnaire was created and asked to 489 visitors with questions such as place of residence, level of studies, information about the trip and personal religious beliefs, to have a description of the type of tourists which consume religious tourism.
After analysing the results of this research, not a clear difference between religious tourists visiting Santiago de Compostela and non religious tourists or tourist with a weak religious belief was found; therefore the results suggest that the personal religious belief is not an affecting factor when choosing the tourist destination.
Abstract ... iii
Acknowledgments ...x
1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...1
1.1 Introduction...1
1.2 Reasons for choosing this topic ...2
1.3 Research Area ...3
1.4 Research Aim and Objectives ...3
1.5 Hypothesis ...4
1.6 Dissertation Structure ...5
2 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ...7
2.1 Definitions of Religious Tourism...7
2.2 Pilgrimage ...9
2.2.1 Different Pilgrimage sites ...10
2.2.2 Missionary...10
2.3 Common features of pilgrimage...11
2.4 Pilgrims or tourists ...12
2.5 Motivation...15
2.5.1 Religious motivation...18
2.5.2 Cultural Motivation ...19
2.5.3 Pilgrimage Motivations...20
2.6 Past Research ...21
3 CHAPTER 3 THE WAY TO SANTIAGO...24
3.1 History of The Way of Santiago ...24
3.2 Pilgrims on the route ...25
3.3 The different routes ...26
3.3.1 French Way ...26
3.3.2 Aragonese way ...27
3.3.3 Primitive Way...28
3.3.4 North Way ...29
3.3.7 Silver way...31
3.3.8 Arousa sea and Ulla river; Jacobean itinerary...32
3.3.9 Finisterre Way ...34
3.4 History of Santiago de Compostela...34
3.5 World Heritage...35
3.6 Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela ...36
3.7 Cultural Tourism in Santiago de Compostela...37
4 CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY ...39
4.1 Sample ...39
4.2 Data collection source ...39
4.2.1 Secondary data sources ...39
4.2.2 Primary data sources...40
4.2.2.1 Quantitative research...40
4.2.2.2 Qualitative research...41
4.2.2.3 Pros and Cons ...42
4.3 Limitations ...43
5 CHAPTER 5 MAIN FINDINGS ...45
5.1 Analyses of the variables ...45
5.2 Hypothesis Results ...52
5.3 Research Results ...55
6 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ...57
6.1 Conclusion ...57
6.2 Recommendations ...58
6.2.1 Recommendations for the tourism industry ...58
6.2.2 Recommendations for further research...59
APPENDICES ...61
APPENDIX 1. Questionnaire ...61
APPENDIX 2. Stages of the French Way...62
APPENDIX 3. Stages of the Primitive Way ...62
APPENDIX 4. Stages of the North Way...63
APPENDIX 7. Stages of the Silver Way ...65
APPENDIX 8. Stages of the Jacobean Itinerary ...65
APPENDIX 9. Stages of the Finisterre Way...66
REFERENCES ...67
Table 5.1.1 Sex ...45
Table 5.1.2 Place of Residence...46
Table 5.1.3 Level of studies ...46
Table 5.1.4 Who did you travel with? ...47
Table 5.1.5 Number of people in the journey ...47
Table 5.1.6 Duration of the stay ...48
Table 5.1.7 Type of accommodation ...48
Table 5.1.8 If the answer is hotel specify ...49
Table 5.1.9 Way of entry to Santiago ...50
Table 5.1.10 Visiting the Cathedral is your ...50
Table 5.1.11 Religion...51
Table 5.1.12 Cross tabulation: Religion/ Way of entry to Santiago...51
Table 5.1.13 Cross tabulation: Level of studies/Religion...52
Figure 2.4.1 Scale Pilgrim/Tourist...14 Figure 2.5.1 Seven Elements for a sound theory of tourist motivation ...17
Map 3.3.1 French Way...27
Map 3.3.2 Aragonese Way...27
Map 3.3.3 Primitive Way ...28
Map 3.3.4.1 North Way ...29
Map 3.3.4.2 North Way (Coastal) ...30
Map 3.3.5 Portuguese Way ...30
Map 3.3.7 English Way...31
Map 3.3.7 Silver way ...32
Map 3.3.8.1 Via Sanxenxo ...33
Map 3.3.8.2 Via Ribeira...33
Map 3.3.9 Finisterre Way...34
I would like to dedicate this dissertation to all the people I have known during this fascinating year, from all the teachers in Sweden and Germany until all the friends I have made during the Master.
To Mike Morgan, for sharing with me the interest in religious tourism.
To my parents, for their constant support and for being there every time I needed them.
To my sister Zahra, for all the good moments we share together.
And to all my friends who are always close to me wherever I am.
David Mashhadigholam Rojo 09-08-2007, Madrid, Spain
1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
This dissertation reports on research into the image of Santiago de Compostela as a religious tourist destination and the focus of the paper will be getting to know if tourism in religious sites is clearly influenced by religion as the main reason to visit them.
In spite of the fact that nowadays a lot of people live in a secular way, according to Jackowski (2000) more than a 35% of all international tourists travel because of religion; pilgrims in their majority.
Human beings have had always the need to believe in something superior. Along the centuries, we have discovered several cults and beliefs related to different gods of superior forces, which humans used to adore, creating representations and buildings to have something material to pray to.
The religious heritage we have today is the legacy given by all the ancient cultures, a result of the evolution of different myths and beliefs. Nowadays, the three biggest religions in the world are Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism, with a 33%, 21% and 14% worldwide of followers respectively. Thanks to tourism, a lot of churches, cathedrals, temples, shrines, etc, have not fallen into oblivion, keeping the grandeur that they had in the past.
Esteve (2002) explains how tourism and religion have been linked since the Genesis until these days through the Grand Tour stage, where young and rich people traveled to learn and study into different countries, motivated as well because of the religion.
Sometimes the terms of cultural tourism and religious tourism are mixed because of their proximity. (For example, Herbert (1995); Du Cros and McKercher (2002); Ooi
(2002)) Although they are completely different terms, cultural and religious tourism are linked one with another as a religion is always part of the culture.
According to Vukonic (1996), most religions require, whatever the aim is, to visit holy places. Visiting sacred places help people to verify and reinforce their beliefs, seeing that the personages they believe in were real people who lived in our world in other times.
Nowadays, there are thousands of different holy places around the world which have enough attractions to develop and provoke movements among the population. Those holy places have a different meaning for each group of people (cultural, religious, mystic, etc), depending on the aim of their trip.
However, when is spoken about holy places, there is no need to think only about modern practising ones, such as cathedrals and synagogues, but also in the ancient religions and their legacies, such as Machu Pichu in Peru, or Stonehenge in England, as they are also the result of ancient’s beliefs.
1.2 Reasons for choosing this topic
Pilgrimages to tradition places or religious cult made from the antiquity, have become for long ago until nowadays in one of the most important parts in tourism, what is known by religious tourism, and in one of the main studied and analysed motivations in order to choose a tourist destination.
Being the religion one of the most influential factors along humanity, and its cultural and economic develop, I found quite interesting to research in this topic, not only for my personal enrichment but also because I describe myself as a religious tourism consumer.
which tourist destination should I choose and the different factors to analyse. Among those factors, the most interesting was getting to know weather the majority of the tourists, visiting religious destinations, had a strong religious belief or not, in other words, if religion had affected the tourists in order to visit this type of destinations.
In spite of the fact that at the beginning I wanted to study a comparative analyse between the most significant religious tourist destinations from the main religions in the world, I chose centring my research on only one religion and one tourist destination, in this case, Christianity in Santiago de Compostela as one of the most representative sites for this religion.
The reasons in order to make a decision were various. For example, the proximity to the city were I was writing the thesis, getting to know weather most of the visitants were religious or non religious, or just the fact of visiting the city.
1.3 Research Area
In this study, the research area focuses on religious tourism. Santiago de Compostela as a case study will be the area researched where a sample of 489 visitors will answer the question weather religion or religious activities are the main motivation of the tourists to visit the city, specially the Cathedral, as an example of a sacred site and pilgrimage destination.
1.4 Research Aim and Objectives
The research aim and objectives of this dissertation, covers the fact that religious people travel around the world to visit sacred sites because of the religion, and not because of another type of motivation, such as cultural motivation, or historical motivation.
The main objective of the dissertation is to find out how much is increasing the
to religious sites, and by which motivations are they influenced to choose a religious site as their tourist destination.
Another objective is to analyse the nature of the consumers of religious tourism by demographic and economic variables such as nationality, sex, or accommodation during the stay.
Getting to know the history of Santiago de Compostela and have an overview from all the different routes that made Santiago one of the most important places of pilgrimage is another objective from this research.
Ending with some recommendations is another objective, mainly because of the lack of research in religious tourism, an area which is considerably increasing nowadays as it will be seen in the research.
Santiago is one of the three more important pilgrimage places for Christianity together with Jerusalem and Rome, therefore the results of the research will show how does the number of no believers increase or decrease according to a quantitative research in this specific destination.
1.5 Hypothesis
The first hypothesis of this research is: most of the people who travel to a sacred site or to a place of pilgrimage are religious in their majority, and travel because of religious motivations.
This hypothesis is based on the tradition of the religions where, in most of the cases, the pilgrimage to a sacred site is needed. Spain is a country where an 83.5% consider themselves catholic and where a 22.6% prays God every day (Religion Statistics, Spain, 2005).
But still, the aim of this research is get to know how increases the number of people who travel to these sacred sites, not motivated by religion but because of another type of motivation such as cultural, historical, or just getting to know how is a sacred site or to see how people with a strong religious belief behave in this sacred sites.
In this case, Santiago de Compostela, one of the three more important places of pilgrimage together with Jerusalem and Rome, is the place of research were a number of 489 visitors will answer different question to get to know how is their religious influence in order to visit a sacred site.
Besides the main hypothesis named before, another hypothesis will be studied such us: Most of the pilgrims which did the Way of Santiago were motivated by religion to do this pilgrimage or people with primary or secondary studies have a stronger religious belief than people with university studies.
These different hypotheses will analyse the different aspects of the tourists (sometimes pilgrims), and their socioeconomic aspect: Level of studies, accommodation during the stay, number of visitors, type of activities done during the stay, and more different aspects.
All the results and main findings of these hypothesis will be shown and analysed in the Chapter 5: Main Findings
1.6 Dissertation Structure
The dissertation is structured in 6 different chapters:
Chapter one: Introduction of the topic, area, aim and objectives of the research and the introduction of the different questions and hypothesis by which the dissertation is based.
Chapter two: Literature review, also called theoretical background or secondary data source is given in this second chapter. It includes concepts and definitions of religious tourism, pilgrims, different types of motivations, past research and history of these concepts.
Chapter three: Santiago de Compostela, its history and background and a brief introduction about the Way of Saint James, also known as the Way of Santiago, and a description of the different roads that lead to Santiago, are given in this third chapter.
Chapter four: In this chapter, the introduction of the methodology used in this dissertation is offered (sample and type of questionnaire used), as well as a discussion between different techniques of research (qualitative and quantitative).
Closing the chapter; limitations found during the research close the chapter four.
Chapter five: This chapter shows the analysis of the main findings encountered in the research. Different tables show the results of the research with a commentary on the data found. The hypotheses testing and the conclusions are also given in this chapter.
Chapter six: The last chapter represents the conclusion of the whole dissertation, and the recommendations for future research.
2 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Definitions of Religious Tourism
Religious Tourism nowadays is considered as a common motivation for travel, as Jackowski (2000) estimates that approximately 240 million people travel every year because of the religion, including Christians, Muslims and Hindus.
Although religious tourism is one of the most understudies areas in tourism research (Vukonic 1998), increases in spiritually motivated travel have coincided with the growth of tourism in the modern era (Lloyd 1998).
Religion has played a key role from their very first days in the development of leisure over the centuries and has influenced how people utilize their leisure time.
Already in the Holy Bible (Genesis 2:1-3) a fragment name leisure time:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.”
This seventh day named already in the Bible was the beginning of the leisure time, which has evolved as the perception of tourism that we all have nowadays.
Horner and Swarbrooke (1999) explain how Religious tourism is one of the oldest forms of tourism and it has undoubtedly existed long before Christianity. Egyptians, Greeks, and Jews expressed their devotion through religious motivated trips. Travel for religious reasons existed also in Africa and Asia. A good example are the Zoroastrians (Runciman, 1987), which motivated pilgrimages in ancient times with a less influence nowadays.
Most researchers identify religious tourism with the individual’s quest for shrines and locales where the visitors seek to experience the sense of identity with sites of historical and cultural meaning (Nolan and Nolan 1989).
Al-Amin (2002), explains how religious tourism is not one type of tourism, as
is the case of secular tourism and describes two different types of religious tourism, a tourism performed through a religious duty, and tourism where the knowledge is recorded and quoted for wider dissemination.
Should the aim of religious tourism be to obtain the Blessings of God, it would achieve another objective, and that is to attract tourists. The aim is to introduce to tourists a country which the tourists find unfamiliar and which is impossible to know about without the existence of religious tourism in the first place. Visitors would also be unable to know more about the people of a country if religious tourism not exists there. (Al-Amin 2002)
In this way, from the Islamic point of view and according to Shakiry (2003), tourism is integrated in the global vision of civilized and interdependent tourism, whose principal bases are respect of the noble human values and ethics which preserves for the human being, respect for the environment.
Among different statements the most remarkable from Shakiry (2003) are:
• Support for social solidarity by taking care to profit the local populations from the tourist activity.
• Making the effort to give the right of travel to all people by offering services at suitable prices to all the social classes.
• Respect for the families of various religions and various people who want to preserve their values and the education of their children.
• Respects for people who observe the Islamic values; those prohibiting certain things permitted by certain societies which adopt the principles of freedom and democracy, without limits or regulations.
From this point of view, tourism, due to the opportunities, offers people from different religions and cultures to come to know each other, it can play a major role in bringing people together, providing mutual understanding and peace between the people of the whole world, and not only between rich persons. (Shakiry 2003)
In spite of the fact that these statements facilitate a typical description of tourism, and religious tourism, Christianity have another characteristic to describe what is religious tourism, more orientated to the pilgrimage as the main consumers of religious tourism.
Smith ((1992) in Collins-Kreiner, 2000) explains how the link between pilgrimage and religious tourism comes from the Latin peregrinus which interpretation is foreign, traveler, newcomer or stranger. The term tourist, also with Latin origins, means tornus or the one who makes a circuitous journey, usually for pleasure, and returns to the starting point. The contemporary use of the terms, identifying the pilgrim as a religious traveler and the tourist as a vacationer, is a culturally constructed polarity that veils the traveler’s motives.
2.2 Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage is defined as: “A journey resulting from religious causes, externally to a holy site and internally for spiritual purposes and internal understanding” (Barber, 1993:1). This journey has existed as long as religions. The actual one dates back to the Middle Age when pilgrimage was very popular. Journeys, then, were very long and dangerous. They could take several years and were not considered as holidays.
Normally, ancient pilgrims used to travel in groups and spend the nights in monasteries. Nowadays this has changed for most of the people.
2.2.1 Different Pilgrimage sites
According to Collins-Kreiner (2006), Pilgrimage is one of the well-known phenomena in religion and it exists in all the main religions of the world:
Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism.
For Christianity, places as Jerusalem, Rome, or Santiago de Compostela, remain as the three more important place of pilgrimage. Lourdes in France is considered as well as one of the most important pilgrimage sites.
For Islam, Mecca, and Medina are still the places of pilgrimage, in this case not volunteered but obliged for every Muslim to go to Mecca at least once in their lives.
For Judaism, the main site of pilgrimage for Jewish religion was the Temple of Jerusalem until it was destroyed in 70 AD. Jerusalem and the Wailing Wall also in Jerusalem are the most important places of pilgrimage for the Jews.
For Buddhism, there are four different places of pilgrimage, but the most important is the birthplace of Buddha at Kapilavastu in Nepal.
2.2.2 Missionary
Lewis (2004) explains that beside the pilgrims, there were other kinds of religiously- inspired travellers, especially in the Christians, and they are called missioners. From early times, Christian missions were active on and beyond the frontiers of Christendom.
For centuries this missionary did not include the lands of Islam because apostasy in Muslim law is a capital offence and therefore it involves the execution of the apostate and the seducer.
Muslims did not engage in organized missionary activities but there were the wandering the Sufis carrying the faith through Central Asia, India and other places, being in its way pilgrims spreading their faith to other countries.
2.3 Common features of pilgrimage
Fadhlalla (2000) shows the common features that the pilgrimage has in all different religions:
• The significance of water by the site of a sacred place or shrine. Water is important as a means of purification, both for purposes of ablution and for curing the sick.
• The ancient origin of many sites of pilgrimage. Newer faiths build their temples and shrines in places which have been venerated since ancient times.
• Difficult access to the sacred places, requiring the pilgrim to make a long and arduous journey, including jungles and deserts.
• The need to make sacrifices as part of the rites of pilgrimage. This includes offerings of food, flowers, and small amounts of money or similar tokens.
• Physical obeisance at the shrine, and in some cases on the road towards the shrine.
• Making the pilgrimage on foot.
• A special mode of dress. This dress is often preserved as the pilgrim’s shroud.
• Belief that objects left at a sacred place will become impregnated with divine or supernatural energy.
• Importance of mountains and isolated locations as places of worship.
• The benefits of maintaining all night vigils at a sacred place.
• Certain times of the day and dates in the lunar calendar, specially the full moon, are considered more auspicious for pilgrimage.
• Certain foods are prohibited during the pilgrimage.
• Abstention from cutting the hair or nails, as well as from sexual relations during the time of pilgrimage.
• The more removed the rites of pilgrimage become from their original purity, the more likely is the growth of an avaricious priestly class and the rise of superstitious practices.
These statements about the common features in pilgrimage have also evolved.
Nowadays, following all these statements depends on the quantity of faith or if the people have a strong religious belief, or a weak religious believe. Personal reasons also affect to follow all the common characteristics of pilgrims for all different religions.
2.4 Pilgrims or tourists
Coleman (2004) explains how there is a clear difference between tourism and pilgrimage. Tourism can be defined as a leisure activity while pilgrimage is more of a sacred journey. However, for the tourism sector, pilgrims are treated as simple tourists, because in their religious trips they have the same needs as non-devoted pilgrims, and moreover, they can visit typical tourist places like museums, cafes or shops, being the only difference the purpose of their visit.
Nowadays, pilgrimage has become an important source for the tourism world. In general, this kind of tourism is linked to the thought of journeys to sacred sites, including a strong religious motivation. This research has helped to see this kind of tourism from a different angle and to understand that not all the people making pilgrimages or visiting religious places are really following a spiritual motivation.
For this reason, a differentiation was tried to distinguish two different types of religious tourism, as not everyone going on a pilgrimage has the same reason for it.
Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to clearly define the number of those who are devoted pilgrims and those with a desire of travelling for leisure and to admire beautiful buildings as unique art pieces, as for example, the ones visiting the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, unless a deep research is done. (Post et al, 1998)
The motivations for pilgrimage are vast and diverse. However, something they all have in common is the desire to travel and experience something new.
In this case, the example of the Christian pilgrimage is taken, considered as an attempt to follow the footsteps of Christ. People chose different walks, places and diverse landscapes that Jesus (or his followers) could have seen. Doing this, pilgrims have the feeling that they have approached the texts of the Bible more closely. For those people, there are several reasons to go on a sacred journey, as for example, to show their love to God, to get near something that is really sacred, to show God their gratitude, to ask for pardon or to beg for a miracle. (Post et al, 1998)
On the other hand, the example of simple tourists who travel to try something new and to visit a sacred site. Their motivations would be totally different as they would look for completely diverse aspects, as visiting a place which seems interesting or has a fascinating history background, to admire something attractive, to make a holiday more exciting, to experiment, change the well-known routine of life so something new can happen, to satisfy curiosity and also perhaps merely to keep up with a modern trend for making such trips. (Post et al, 1998)
There are different approaches and points of view about the aim of a religious trip.
But it is important to see that there is a clear difference between religious and cultural tourism. The visits to merely ‘admire’ religious monuments cannot be considered as pilgrimages as they have more of a cultural than a religious motivation.
In the following figure, a scale differentiating the pious pilgrim with the secular tourist, and the different types of pilgrims/tourists, in between:
Figure 2.4.1 Scale Pilgrim/Tourist
Pilgrimage Religious Tourism Tourism A B C D E Sacred Faith / Profane Knowledge – Based Secular
A : Pious Pilgrim B : Pilgrim > Tourist C : Pilgrim = Tourist D: Pilgrim < Tourist E: Secular Tourist
Source: Smith, ((1992:4) in Collins-Kreiner 2006)
In this table can be observed how Smith (1992:4) divides the differences between pilgrim and tourists into five different segments. The Pious Pilgrim, the one who is strongly motivated by his religious beliefs. The pilgrim motivated in big part by the faith. The pilgrim motivated by the faith but also with interest in visiting cultural sites and with another kind of motivations, not only religious motivations. The pilgrim, which is motivated by cultural reasons, with interest in getting to know the religious tradition. And the secular tourist which has no religious influence at all, when choosing the tourist destination.
Horner and Swarbrooke (1999) show how the traditional infrastructure of religious tourism has also become an attraction for the non religious tourists, most notably cathedrals and churches.
At the same time, due to the growing pressures of life, many non believers are taking short trips to religious establishments for relaxation and spiritual enlightenment. For instance men can visit Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece, for a short period, free of charge, providing they abide by the regime of the Monastery. (Horner and Swarbrooke 1999)
2.5 Motivation
Mountinho (1987: 16) defined motivation as a state of need, as a condition that exerts a push on the individual towards certain types of action that are seen as likely to bring satisfaction. Page (2003) explains how it is important to understand what the tourists desires, needs and looks for from the process of consuming a tourism experience that involves an invest of money, in order to achieve a level of satisfaction.
Yet tourist motivation is a complex area dominated by the social psychologists, with their concern for the behaviour, attitudes and thoughts of people as consumers of tourism (Page 2003).
For Pearce (1993), in any attempt to understand tourist motivation must be considered the develop of a concept of motivation in tourism, to know what practical measures need to be developed to measure people’s motivation for travel, especially the existence of multi-motivation situations, with more than one factor influencing the desire to engage in tourism.
Motivation is an initial point in studying tourism behaviour and beyond that for understanding the systems of tourism (Gunn 1988).
Chen (2006) believes that individuals have limited motives and are likely to change their motivation in ascending stages over time.
Pearce (2005) explains how the difficulties in studying motivation are considerable.
Unlike the frequently measured purpose of travel, which is considered to be public and self-explanatory, the motivations for travel are covert in that they reflect an individual’s private needs and wants. Nevertheless the value of pursuing travel motivation studies can be described as extensive.
Pearce (2005) exposes that motivation studies are of interest to businesses and commercial analysts because sound market appraisals can be built on such appraisals.
Although there has been an awareness of the need to develop motivation theories, existing approaches only partially meet all the requirements of a good theory (Pearce 1993)
Figure 2.5.1 shows seven elements that have been identified as important for a tourist motivational theory.
Figure 2.5.1 Seven Elements for a sound theory of tourist motivation
Element Explanation
1 The role of the theory Must be able to integrate existing tourist needs, reorganize the needs and provide a new orientation for future research
2 The ownership and appeal of a theory
Must appeal to specialist researchers, be useful in tourism industry settings and credible to marketers and consumers
3 Ease of communication Must be relatively easy to explain to potential users and be universal in its application
4 Ability to measure travel motivation
Must be amenable to empirical study. The ideas can be translated into questions and responses for assessments purposes
5 A multi-motive versus single-trait approach
Must consider the view that travellers may seek to satisfy several needs at once. Must be able to model the pattern of traveller needs, not just consider one need.
6 A dynamic versus snapshot approach
Must recognize that both individuals and societies change over time. Must be able to consider or model the changes that are taking place continuously in tourism
7 The roles of extrinsic and intrinsic
motivation
Must be able to consider that travellers are variously motivated by intrinsic, self-satisfying goals and at other times motivated by extrinsic, socially controlled rewards
Source: Pearce (2005:52)
After the review on tourism motivation, and in spite of the fact that religious motivation, motivations for pilgrimage and cultural motivation are different subjects, sometimes these factors are mixed in the same definition. Therefore some differences will be explained.
2.5.1 Religious motivation
According to Grunewald (1999), for the Christianity, the idea of pilgrimage is undoubtedly linked to the belief that “The Church is pilgrim” as the will of people following God
The religious sense of the people has found, its expression in varied forms of mercy around the sacramental life of the Church such as, among others, the pilgrimages.
Horner and Swarbrooke (1999) explain how religious tourism and the motivations to do this type of tourism is unique in that is driven by a sense of duty and obligation rather than a search for pleasure and leisure.
Pilgrimage constitutes for the believer an oration experience that evokes that status viatoris, and supposes therefore a penance attitude with respect to preoccupations.
Frequently the pilgrim goes to the sanctuary requesting a particular grace.
In synthesis:, the believer accedes to the motivated destination to live a spiritual experience on approach to God that is expressed through the peregrination from its place of habitual residence to the destination as an act of reinforcement of the Faith, through the spiritual retirement in the sanctuary chose in the destination and through the participation in some religious event, as masses or another religious activities (Shackley 2001).
Olsen and Guleke (2004) describe how these types of motivations are complex.
Some travel in order to maintain an identity, another to satisfy the feelings of nostalgia, to experience the transcendent or to fulfil the teachings of particular faiths as for example, the journeys to Mecca for devout Muslims.
Timothy and Olsen (2006) explain how though a quest for understanding has always been an integral part of pilgrimage, the emphasis on acquiring knowledge as a motivation has increased.
During medieval Christian pilgrimage, expiating sins, demonstrating faith or the
pilgrimage evolved into modern religious tourism, the emphasis on gaining knowledge as a motivation for undertaking the journey increased (Swatos and Tomasi (2002) in Timothy and Olsen (2006)).
An anthropological interest in the exotic other and in one’s own religious roots similarly increased as a motivation for travel to sites of religious significance (Galbraith 2000)
Today, opportunities for learning are often emphasized by organizers of and participants in religious tours. (Timothy and Olsen 2006)
2.5.2 Cultural Motivation
The World Tourism Organisation (WTO) exposes the definition of cultural tourism as:
“Movements of persons for essentially cultural motivations such as study tours, performing arts and cultural tours, travel to festivals and other cultural events, visits to sites and monuments, travel to study nature, folklore or art, and pilgrimages”
Although the WTO explains that pilgrimage is part of cultural tourism, different type of motivations will be explained.
According to Richards (2007), not all cultural consumption by tourists is stimulated by cultural motivations but sometimes as a secondary objective. For example if it rains, tourists may forsake the beach for the museum. In this case cultural tourism and the motivations to do cultural tourism are influences by other factors and act as the secondary objective. This type of cultural tourism may be different in terms of motivation and behaviour from those who set out from home with the intention of consuming specific cultural manifestations.
Grunewald (1999) explains how other visitors, believers or no believers accede to the places of cult and sanctuaries in order to internalize themselves of all those elements of identification of the cult, such as the constructions, the rituals, the images or the events.
Thus different types of behaviours of the visitor in the destination might appear:
The believer based on a cultural experience goes to the destination only motivated to live a religious experience.
The visitor who goes to a specific destination attracted by the cultural elements related to the religion. For instance to visit a Church by its architecture and its cultural patrimony, works of art or just to know more about the history of the place.
Richards (2007) explains that in many of the trips usually seen as cultural tourism, often involve a visit to a religious site. For example visiting Notre Dame in Paris is always part of a cultural visit, but it involves religious tourism.
Almost 40 percent of individual cultural tourists had visited a religious monument in the previous two years (AFIT, 2002)
2.5.3 Pilgrimage Motivations
The motivations for pilgrimage are vast and diverse. However, something they all have in common is the desire to travel and experience something new.
As an example is taken the Christian pilgrimage, considered as an attempt to follow the footsteps of Christ. People chose different walks, places and diverse landscapes that Jesus (or his followers) could have seen.
Doing this, pilgrims have the feeling that they have approached the texts of the Bible more closely. For those people, there are several reasons to go on a sacred journey,
On the other hand, there are the simple tourists who travel to try something new and to visit a sacred site.
Their motivations would be totally different as they would look for completely diverse aspects, as visiting a place which seems interesting or has a fascinating history background, to admire something attractive, to make a holiday more exciting, to experiment, change the well-known routine of life so something new can happen, to satisfy curiosity and also perhaps merely to keep up with a modern trend for making such trips.
As it can be seen, there are different approaches and points of view about the aim of a religious trip. But it is important to see that there is a clear difference between religious and cultural tourism. The visits to merely admire religious monuments cannot be considered as pilgrimages as they have more of a cultural than a religious motivation
2.6 Past Research
Some past research has been done concerning religious tourism and more facts related to this issue as impacts or development in different areas of the world, where religious tourism have a big influence. These researches reach international coverage as:
Al-Amin (2002): This paper is about religious tourism in Islamic Heritage and explains the different conceptions of religious tourism, and how tourists get to know Islamic countries, in this case, through religious tourism.
Baedcharoen (2000): This study tries to understand the resident attitudes’ to the economic, social-cultural and physical impacts of tourism development in Buddhist temples in Thailand. It was found in this study that residents tend to recognise tourism benefits and are less interested with its costs or impacts.
Chmielewski (2005): The purpose of this research is to determine the likely effect of cultural tourism, particularly religious tourism, and also ecotourism, on its toured human subjects, in the ethnically Tibetan village of Jisha in Yunnan, China that plans to open and run its own tourism enterprise.
Harahsheh, Morgan and Edwards (2007): The paper reports on research into the image of Jordan as a tourist destination by British and Swedish people. It studies the influence of the image according to the religious beliefs and tradition of the tourists.
The survey was made in Borlänge (Sweden) and Bournemouth (England).
Collins-Kreiner (2006): In this study, a field trip and observation at the Galilee holy sites, Nazareth and Jerusalem, was carried out in the summer and fall of 2003 to find out what were the effects of the declining number of tourists on the Christian sacred sites in the Galilee and Jerusalem.
Pernecky (2004): This thesis, called the dawn of new age tourism: an analysis of Aotearoa studies the phenomenon of new age tourism in New Zealand. Spirituality, religious tourism, pilgrimage and sacred sites are part of this study. This provides as well, an overview of New Zealand, as a new age tourist destination.
Post, Pieper and Uden (1998): The case study presented in the book is about the Way of the pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela and their spiritual experiences. They used the “trigger-words” research method, gathering several concepts potentially meaningful for pilgrims walking to Santiago de Compostela such as backpack, stamp, tiredness, landscape, feet, prayer and staff. The results showed up the different types of pilgrims and their different spiritual experiences.
Santos (2002): Santos examined pilgrimage and tourism at Santiago de Compostela and argued that there was a little difference between pilgrims and tourists despite efforts by religious groups to make this distinction and to set an abstract definition of pilgrim in this context. Santos found that the majority of visitors to Santiago de
Compostela and travellers along the Way of Santiago were simply tourists curious about the route and the city of Santiago de Compostela.
Shinde (2006): This paper, presented in Belfast in a conference which theme was
‘Tourism and the Roots/Routes of Religious Festivity’ covers information about pilgrimage, tourism, and religious tourism at sacred sites in India. This paper explores movement of pilgrimage into an organised and formal industry of religious tourism through study of Vrindavan, a sacred site visited by more than 3.5 million people in North India.
3 CHAPTER 3 THE WAY TO SANTIAGO
3.1 History of The Way of Santiago
Many researchers have explained the history of Santiago de Compostela (For example, Coleman (2004); Esteve (2000); Jácome and Gonzalez (1992); Klaus (1986); Picaus (2004)) But referring to Gonzalez and Camilo (1999), they stated the history of The Way of Santiago explaining how at a time, when Europe needed to be united, the Way to Santiago was the first element that made it possible. The find of the sepulchre of the first Apostle Martyr became an unquestionable symbol, compatible with the diverse conceptions of the Christians.
Conscious of the importance of having the relics of Santiago el Mayor, the Spanish Monarchies contributed significantly to the success of the holy route. In those times the peninsula had a growing need for money and soldiers to fight against the Moorish.
The kings of Aragon, Navarre and Castile made a great effort to attract to their possessions powerful rich people, and to that end, employed all possible means:
interchange of presents, arranged marriages and the announcements of the favours dispensed by the Apostle. As the faith in the miracles performed by Santiago extended people began to make pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in order to obtain his grace.
The first known pilgrim was Gotescalco, Bishop of Puy, who made the pilgrimage in 950 accompanied by his retinue; later the route was to be followed by the Marquis of Gothia, who was murdered on the way; a century later, the Apostle’s tomb was visited by the Archbishop of Lyon. And along these distinguished pilgrims, a growing number of believers of all conditions travelled in the same route.
The Way to Santiago has indissolubly connected the culture, the knowledge and the
along the Route was known to more people and places. On account of its influence on literature and art, Compostela, along with Rome or Jerusalem, became a place of cult for Christian society, especially between the 11 and 14 century.
3.2 Pilgrims on the route
Along the routes to Santiago de Compostela have walked people of all stamps and conditions: honest, pilgrims, convicts, minstrels, beggars, adventurers, tramps, and even fugitives.
The religious people made the pilgrimage urged by their unrestrained need to visit the tomb of the Apostle Santiago and to begin a personal relationship with him.
Other pilgrims made the journey in order to fulfil a promise made to the Apostle after they overcame a difficult situation.
Among these were those who had been seriously ill, and others that came in search of a miraculous recovery. There were also convicts who made the pilgrimage as a punishment, imposed either by the ecclesiastical authorities or civil judges.
Jácome and Gonzalez (1992) explain how robbers, unscrupulous merchants and rascals could also be found. The number of pilgrims increased when the Pope Calixto II established the Jubilee in 1122. This meant that all penitent travellers who set out on pilgrimage in Holy Years -when the feast day, 25 July, fell on a Sunday- and fulfilled the requirements would get jubilee indulgences. As a consequence, the number of pilgrims that made the way in the 12C rose surprisingly to 200,000.
According to official statistics, the number of pilgrims in the Way of Santiago increased from 100.733 pilgrims in 2006 to 110.538 in 2007.
Nowadays, people from all over the world come to Spain to do the Way of Santiago as part of the tradition, because of their religious beliefs, or just to have fun and meet new people. Countries like Brazil, Canada, England, United States, France, Italy,
Germany, Norway or Portugal have web pages where the pilgrims tell their stories along their Way to Santiago.
3.3 The different routes
There are different Ways to Santiago that start from different points. Yzquierdo (2003) gathers the information about nine different routes to do the Way of Santiago:
3.3.1 French Way
Is the pilgrim route par excellence and it has two different branches, depending on the point of entry from France.
Starting with the main French Way, the pilgrims travel more than 770 Kilometres in Spain, having reached Saint Jean Pied de Port in France. This route passes through the Spanish provinces of Navarre, La Rioja, Burgos, Palencia, Leon, Lugo and A Coruña. This route usually takes about 30 days to reach Santiago de Compostela with an average of 25 km. per day.
The route began to be signposted with yellow arrows in the eighties, thanks to the parish priest of O Cebreiro, and the association of the friends of the Navarre Way.
This first symbol is now accompanied by milestones and the institutional signs of each region.
Further information about the stage of the French Way can be found in the Appendix 2.
Map 3.3.1 French Way
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
3.3.2 Aragonese way
This Way enters Spain from France via Somport, in Aragon, and continues through the provinces of Huesca, Saragossa and Navarre before reaching Puene la Reina, after 6 days and 167 km., where it joins the French Way
Map 3.3.2 Aragonese Way
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
3.3.3 Primitive Way
The first devotees from Oviedo, the capital of the Asturian kingdom, followed the ancient route that, according to the tradition, led King Alfonso II he Chaste to the Apostle’s tomb in the first third of the 9th century.
This route from Oviedo to Santiago de Compostela was a safe itinerary that was frequented until well into the 10th century, when the French Way was consolidated from Leon, the new capital of the Kingdom. However, after it was still an important alternative, especially due to the spiritual value that was attributed to visiting the Holy Chamber of the Saviour of Oviedo, as well as the Cathedral of Lugo, with its permanent exhibition of the Holy Sacrament.
For more information, see Appendix 3.
Map 3.3.3 Primitive Way
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
3.3.4 North Way
Almost immediately after the discovery of the tomb of Saint James in the 9th century, pilgrims began following the Asturian-Galician ways in order to research Santiago de Compostela, since the Castilian plateau, which would be subsequently crossed by the French Way, was occupied by the Moors. The route enables the pilgrims, who had come overland from France or disembarked in Basque, Cantabrian or Galician ports, to combine the traditional visit to the Saviour in the Cathedral of Oviedo or continue along the Asturian coast as far as the Ria del Eo.
More information about the stages of the North Way can be found in the Appendix 4.
Map 3.3.4.1 North Way
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
Map 3.3.4.2 North Way (Coastal)
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
3.3.5 Portuguese Way
There are numerous routes, depending on the starting point in Portugal of the pilgrims, but the main itinerary starts in Oporto and enters Spain via Tui. The international Valença do Miño-Tui bridge has facilitated the crossing of the River Miño, but some branches still cross the river by boat. Other Portuguese routes reach the Spanish border via Chaves, Bragança and inside Galicia, join the Via de la Plata, known as the Silver Road that will be explained later on. The Galician itinerary has 116 kilometers.
The Appendix 5 shows more information related to the stages of the Portuguese Way
Map 3.3.5 Portuguese Way
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org 3.3.6 English Way
The European pilgrims that travelled by ship to the northern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, especially the British, disembarked in A Coruña or Ferrol, after heading for Compostela along the routes shown in the map. In the Appendix 6, further information about the stages of the English Way is given.
Map 3.3.7 English Way
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
3.3.7 Silver way
The Via de la Plata is longest Jacobean route, as a prolongation of the Roman road that crossed the western Iberian Peninsula from south to north, linking the cities of Emerita Augusta, in Merida, and Asturica Augusta, in Astorga. After the conquest of Seville and Cordoba in the 13th century, the Silver road was spontaneously reused by Jacobean pilgrims from Andalusia and Extremadura. Some continued as far as Astorga, joining the French Way. Others headed towards Compostela via the route from Puebla de Sanabria to Ourense, which was shorter and straighter, while some
See Appendix 7 for more detailed information.
Map 3.3.7 Silver way
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
3.3.8 Arousa sea and Ulla river; Jacobean itinerary
This sea-river route via the ria de Arousa and the Ulla river, commemorates the
at the Roman city of Iria Flavia, as remembers today by a sea-river precession to Pontecesures and Padron (See Appendix 8).
Map 3.3.8.1 Via Sanxenxo
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
Map 3.3.8.2 Via Ribeira
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
3.3.9 Finisterre Way
If all roads lead to Santiago de Compostela, this one, the Finisterre Way, is the only one originating in the holy city. The visit to the Holy Christ of Finisterre and the Sanctuary of A Barca, in Muxia, surrounded by the impressive landscape of the ancient End of the Land, finis terrae, is a ritual followed by many pilgrims to round off the Jacobean Pilgrimage (See Appendix 9).
Map 3.3.9 Finisterre Way
Source: http://www.caminodesantiago.org
3.4 History of Santiago de Compostela
As Esteve (2002) states, until the 9th century, the city of Santiago de Compostela did not exist as such. However, archaeological excavations have shown that the present- day location of the old town was the site, in antiquity, of a Roman town that acquired certain importance and remained until the 7th century, forming part of the Swabian kingdom during some time.
In the 1st century, alongside the walled enclosure of the Roman “civitas”, a pagan mausoleum was erected that subsequently gave rise to the cathedral. It has been demonstrated that, in that same century, three Christian martyrs were buried in the mausoleum, which became an established centre of worship, as shown by the nearby Christian cemetery that was used until the 7th century.
During the early 9th century (the year 813 is the most probable), the bishop of Iria Flavia, Teodomiro, was taken by a hermit called Pelagio to examine the mausoleum, which he recognised as that of the Apostle James; he based his opinion on the oral tradition according to which St. James had preached in Spain’s “finis terrae”, thereafter being martyred on returning to Palestine. His disciples Atanasio and Teodoro brought his decapitated body back; according to legend, they disembarked in Iria Flavia, 20 km away, and took it to Monte Libredón, where they buried it in a stone chest.
The Asturian king Alfonso II travelled from Oviedo with all of his court and recognised the existence of the Apostle James’ tomb. At that very moment, he made James the patron saint of his kingdom, turning the place into a centre of worship capable of uniting Western Christendom against the Moors’ expansion. The city’s foundation dates from the year 830. Santiago’s first church was also built –a simple construction housing the mausoleum from Roman times.
3.5 World Heritage
Santiago de Compostela was declared a World Heritage City by UNESCO in 1985, in view of its urban beauty and monumental integrity, as well as the profound echoes of its spiritual significance as an apostolic sanctuary and the destination of the Middle Ages' most important religious and cultural movement: the Way of St. James pilgrimage.
Statement from the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS 1985) for the inclusion of Santiago de Compostela in the World Heritage list:
“Being an extraordinary monument set grouped around the tomb of Santiago the Greater one, and destination of all the routes of the greater peregrination of the Christianity between centuries XI and XVIII, Santiago de Compostela is undoubtedly one of the most unquestionable properties inherited from parents of the Humanity.
This city, due to its monumental integrity, reunites specific and universal values. To the unique character of its different masterpieces and the transcendental aesthetic contribution is added that makes use of diachronic elements. The nature of this city of Christian peregrination, enriched by the ideological connotations of the Reconquest, has its echo in the enormous spiritual meaning of one of the few deeply places of faith as to become asylums for all the Humanity (...)”
The Way of St. James was, in effect, declared a World Heritage Route by UNESCO eight years later in 1993.
3.6 Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, conceived as a small city of stone centred on holy relics and endowed with its own life, has evolved with vitality through the years, resulting in today’s heterogeneous building of different historical styles and artistic tendencies that have been successively superimposed.
The Romanesque Cathedral, designed according to the French model of pilgrimage churches, was erected (1075-1211) on the site of the first churches that were built in the place where the Apostle’s ashes appeared, the last of which was destroyed by Almanzor in the summer of 997. The boom of the pilgrimages and the riches of one of the Iberian Peninsula’s biggest feudal estates enabled the beginning of the cathedral’s construction during the episcopacy of Diego Peláez. The building has a traditional Latin-cross ground plan with three naves. The ambulatory surrounds the High Altar in order to provide access to the relics by means of a small transversal corridor where the apostolic ashes are kept. The naves have cruciform pillars with
the transept and the ambulatory. The exterior part, or triforium, consists of arcades with sections formed by two smaller arches. The gallery is a characteristic construction of pilgrimage churches due to the need for increasing the capacity in order to accommodate a large number of visitors. The central nave is 97 m long and 20 m high; it is covered by barrel vaults and the side naves by groined vaults. The present-day Gothic dome replaced the old Romanesque tower that was erected above the High Altar. Below the dome there is the structure that was designed in the 16th century in order to operate the “botafumeiro”, a large censer made of silver-plated brass that flies from one end of the transept to the other and which was used to purify the atmosphere when the pilgrims slept inside the cathedral. The building has three doors: Azabachería, Platerías and the one leading to the Porch of Glory from Praza do Obradoiro.
A tour was designed according to which the cathedral was to be accessed via the north door, formerly called the Door of Paradise, thereafter going through the transept as far as the High Altar and ambulatory in order to visit the Apostle’s tomb and subsequently entering the east arm with sculptural iconography based on the New Testament.
3.7 Cultural Tourism in Santiago de Compostela
Gaztelumendi (2006) exposes in his paper how cultural tourism could increase in Santiago de Compostela thanks to be a religious sacred site place. He exposes how the increase of the demand creates great opportunities, and the increase of the supply carries a big competency. Therefore a new creative, realistic and active strategy should be done to increase the cultural tourism there.
The competitive advantages that Santiago de Compostela has are for example the label of religious tourism place, but also is also an historical place, not only because of the Christianity but also for the Celtic culture, where ancient rests can be found in Santiago de Compostela and their proximities. But these attractions are not enough to
increase the cultural tourism, thus there is a need to make these resources become products, and these products became marketable supply.
Gaztelumendi (2006) explains how this strategy in focused on two directions:
One, the national market offering a major product diversification, especially to those cities which are more accessible such as Madrid, Catalonia or Valencia.
And the second direction to the international market with special priority to France, Germany, Italy, Benelux and Great Britain.
Therefore, Santiago de Compostela must show a new and renovated image, more modern, youth with vitality in order to create an image with more variety and not only focused on religion and religious tourism.
According to Gaztelumendi (2006) this strategy should carry as well a lot of develop, specially in tourist products such as a tourist bus, tourist train, or 48hours cards with discounts in Museums and transportation, in order to improve the tourism in Santiago de Compostela.
4 CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY
4.1 Sample
In this study, a structured convenient questionnaire was designed and asked to 489 visitors randomly close to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela at Plaza del Obradoiro and Plaza de Platerias. These places were strategically chosen because they are the two ways of entry into the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
This sample took place between the 29-07-2007 and the 5-08-2007.
The specific case of Santiago de Compostela was chosen because Santiago is one of the most important places of pilgrimage for Christianity; therefore, the sample will analyse a common place for religious tourism consumers.
A copy of the questionnaire is enclosed in the Appendix 1.
4.2 Data collection source
Primary and secondary data sources were used to research in this study.
4.2.1 Secondary data sources
Secondary data sources are those sources which were written or used already by other writers. In this case can be considered secondary data sources such as statistics, thesis, studies, journals, newspapers, reports, conferences, maps, books, encyclopaedias,
All the information gathered on web pages is also considered as secondary data sources.
4.2.2 Primary data sources
Primary data sources are considered as the collection of facts that are gathered from the original sources and are collected especially for the research problem.
Quantitative research, which covers the information collected direct from people through questionnaires, or qualitative research, which covers the information collected direct from people through interviews.
4.2.2.1 Quantitative research
When quantitative methods are applied measure characteristics or variables that can take numerical values and must be described to facilitate the search of possible relations by means of the statistical analysis.
Here the random, quasi-experimental techniques experimental, tests of pencil and paper, studies of sample are used "objective", etc. Within all the analyses of the quantitative methods we can find a characteristic based on the positivism like epistemological source, that is the emphasis in the precision of the procedures for the measurement, as well as the relation clear between the concepts and the indicators with which they are moderate, to avoid the confusions that the use of a dark language generates, that in spite of being seductive, is difficult to verify its veracity (Walle 1997).
Another predominant characteristic of the quantitative methods is the subjective selection of indicators (through concepts and variables) of certain elements of processes, facts, structures and people.
These elements do not conform in their totality, the processes or the people (the debate between the pro-quantitative who never see an integrated phenomenon, but always joint is derived there from particles of the phenomena related to the
Nevertheless, the new quantitative techniques, like the analysis of social networks (e.g. Scott, 2000), or the history of events, is to a certain extent able to surpass these limitations. The previous thing is related to one third characteristic also born of the positivism that is the search of the generalization.
4.2.2.2 Qualitative research
Consists of detailed descriptions of situations, events, people, interactions and behaviours that are observable. It incorporates what the participants say, his experiences, attitudes, beliefs, thoughts and reflections as they are expressed by themselves and not as one describes them.
As Walle (1997) states, one of the most important characteristics of the qualitative techniques of investigation is that they try to catch the sense that the people give their acts, to their ideas, and to the world that surrounds to them. They are considered between the qualitative methods to the ethnography, the studies of case, the interviews to depth, the participant observation and the investigation-action.
One first characteristic of these methods is pronounced in its strategy to try to meet the facts, processes, structures and in its totality, and not through the measurement of some of its elements (Walle 1997).
The same strategy already indicates the use of procedures that give a unique character to the observations.
The second characteristic is the use of procedures that make the observations in the time and different cultural circumstances less comparable, that is to say, this method looks for except the generalization and more approaches the phenomenology and the symbolic interactions.
One third important strategic characteristic for this work (since it feels bases for the
in its deal - intensive with the people involved in the investigation process, to understand them.(Walle 1997)
4.2.2.3 Pros and Cons
The use of these methods has always made researches decline to use one of them and focus their research either using qualitative or quantitative, here it can be seen some of their differences and afterwards, be able to decide which one adjusts better to the research
The main disadvantage of qualitative research is that its results can not be applied to wider populations with the same degree of certainty which quantitative methods can.
This is because the results of the research are not tested to find out whether they are statistically significant or due to chance. Otherwise, its data collection and analysis could be carried on an intensive and time-consuming way. (Babbie 2004)
Once using quantitative research may be found out that it sometimes forces to response or may put people into categories that might not fit in order to get the information. On the other hand, qualitative sometimes focuses too closely on individual results and fails when making connections to larger situations or causes of the results.
The involvement of words belongs to the qualitative research and numbers to the quantitative. All quantitative research is deductive, needs a hypothesis in order to be researchable, not as the qualitative, that is inductive and doesn’t need a hypothesis, just centres the aim of the research.
The role of the researcher plays also a big importance when talking about qualitative and quantitative. In quantitative research, is just an objective observer that doesn’t participate in what is being studied. In qualitative research, the researcher can even
