Higher Education and Sustainable Growth through Religious Tourism

ongoing

Religious routes and pilgrimages have long been recognized for their role in regional development. Recent studies emphasise leveraging religious heritage in inclusive, technology-driven ways to promote sustainable development, economic growth, and tourism. Pilgrimage researchers have been exploring how modern pilgrimage routes acquire unique regional or national identities. However, recent advances in religious tourism are absent or very limited in HE curricula, especially in regions like the Western Balkans, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, which also face challenges in inclusion, accessibility, and diversity. The SacredTravels4Growth project addresses these gaps by bridging the industry’s need for a specialised religious tourism workforce with HE preparation. It focuses on: 1. Adapting European religious tourism and HE models to train future labour forces in inclusion, accessibility, and diversity. 2. Training educators and practitioners in advanced religious tourism practices and their application in HE. 3. Revising curricula to align with market demands in cultural and religious tourism. 4. Establishing or upgrading laboratory infrastructure to support training and research. 5. Developing educational resources, including a handbook and five MOOCs, to facilitate curricular reform.