Structuration and branding of a religious tourism product: catalonia sacra

              © PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. ISSN 1695-7121
Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural
PAS S
www.pasosonline.org
Vol. 11 Nº 3. Special Issue. págs. 135-145. 2013
Structuration and branding of a religious tourism product:
catalonia sacra
Dolors Vidal Casellas*
Sílvia Aulet Serrallonga**
Neus Crous Costa***
University of Girona, Spain
Abstract: This article aims to provide an overview of the products Catalonia has to offer in terms of reli-gious
tourism. The growing interest in this kind of tourism worldwide, and in Catalonia itself, along with
the region’s wealth of religious heritage (particularly connected to the Christian Church) contrast with the
lack of religion-based tourism products available, which results in its absence from the region’s image as
a tourism destination. In view of this, the Faculty of Tourism (University of Girona), the Vic Bishopric’s
Albergueria-Centre for Cultural Dissemination and the Tarraconense Episcopal Conference’s Interdiocese
Secretariat for the Custody and Promotion of Holy Art (SICPAS) decided to address the situation with the
help of funding from the Autonomous Government of Catalonia.
In order to re-position Christian religious heritage in the image of Catalonia as a tourist destination,
the aforementioned parties embarked upon a project to set up a series of routes throughout the region,
branded under the name Catalonia Sacra.
Keywords: religious tourism, routes, religious heritage, holy art, religious tourism product branding,
symbolic meaning
1. Introduction
From the second half of the 20th century
onwards, Catalonia’s image as a tourist destination
has been closely linked to the sun and sand pro-duct,
while other parts of Spain have developed and
consolidated other types of tourism product, from
cultural shows (flamenco in Andalusia) to material
cultural heritage (Burgos and Leon cathedrals).
It was not until the nineties that the Catalan
tourism agency Turisme de Catalunya (current
name Agència Catalana de Turisme), which is
linked to the Autonomous Government of Catalo-nia,
initiated a clear branding strategy for Cata-lonia
as a tourist destination on the basis of five
different product segments. These segments were,
and still are, based on the following thematic areas:
culture, gastronomy or cuisine, active -nature, golf,
and wellness. Although organisations apply for
membership themselves (only those public or pri-vate
organisations who apply and pay a fee can
be members, meaning they represent the tourism
image of Catalonia for each of these areas), the
initiative did represent a first step towards redi-recting
Catalonia as a tourist destination at a
time when the sun and sand model was entering a
crisis and other modes of tourism, such as cultural
tourism, were becoming known.
Over recent years we have seen how the Agència
Catalana de Turisme, the Department for Innova-
* Tourism Faculty, University of Girona, Spain. E-mail: dolors.vidal@udg.edu
** Tourism Faculty, University of Girona, Spain. E-mail: silvia.aulet@udg.edu
*** Tourism Faculty, University of Girona, Spain. E-mail: u1055773@correu.udg.edu
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 11 Nº 3. Special Issue. Julio 2013 ISSN 1695-7121
136 Structuration and branding of a religious tourism product
tion, Universities and Enterprise (which was res-ponsible
for the Department of Tourism until the
November 2010 elections) and public and private
tourism agents have promoted different thematic
routes throughout the region of Catalonia under
the name of brands that are clearly intended to
help define the cultural image of Catalonia not
only in the minds of visitors but also residents.
Thus, for example, we now find products such as
Les Rutes del Pirineu Comtal (Routes through the
Pyrenees), La Ruta del Modernisme (the Moder-nist
Route) in Barcelona and El Triangle Dalinià
(the Dali Triangle), to mention but a few.
As we can see, these brands of regional pro-ducts
reveal different facets of Catalan identity,
in line with what marketing theory suggests
should be transmitted by a a brand (and, by
extension, the product or region behind it):
“branding involves promoting the unique bene-fits
that the tourist will experience while visiting
the city [or region], rather than the city itself.
Branding answers the question ‘Why should I
visit your city [region]?’” (Kolb 2006: 18). The-refore,
as already mentioned, brands help us to
retain our tourist experience of a destination by
means of epithets referring to the different attri-butes
which combine together to comprise it.
Over the past 15 years, then, both local gover-nment
and private organisations have worked
to develop products and brands that satisfy the
specific demand and value the region’s existing
resources, rather than trying to create new ones.
Despite this effort, a growing segment is curren-tly
detected that demands products linked to
religious or spiritual tourism. And this segment
is being ignored. It is true that related products
have been created and brands promoted, such
as La Ruta del Císter, El Camí de Sant Jaume
(English: St. James’ Way) (since 2010) and even
El Camí dels Bonshomes. In all of these cases,
however, deficiencies are detected in the dis-course
when it comes to everything referring to
sacred, spiritual or religious elements and there
is a lack of know -how regarding how to meet
existing demand. All this despite a broad and
rich religious heritage already being constructed
and in existence (Christian and other beliefs).
In this context the need arose to create a
brand linked to a high -quality product that
identified Catalonia with its religious Christian
and holy past, emphasising the importance it
has had for the region throughout its history.
It is for this reason that 2008 witnessed the
founding of “Catalonia Sacra” (a name that
became the brand for the resulting product), a
project undertaken by Tarraconense Episcopal
Conference’s Interdiocese Secretariat for the
Custody and Promotion of Holy Art (SICPAS),
in coordination with the Faculty of Tourism and
the University of Girona and the Vic Bishopric’s
Albergueria -Centre for Cultural Dissemination,
with funding from the Autonomous Government
of Catalonia. The aim of this article is to provide
a brief description of the current situation regar-ding
tourism in Catalonia, particularly in refe-rence
to cultural -religious tourism, followed by
a presentation of the tourist brand and product
Catalonia Sacra in its regional context.
2. Catalonia in its current tourism context
In recent decades tourism has become one of
the main economic industries (whilst also having
a strong social impact) in many parts of the
world. As a specific branch of this phenomenon,
cultural tourism appeared (or more accurately,
was recognised) in the mid -nineties. In 1992,
in its period forecasts for worldwide tourism up
until the year 2000, the World Tourism Organi-zation
(UNWTO), although not directly mentio-ning
cultural tourism, emphasised that changes
in demand (due to more in -depth knowledge of
destinations and more experience in travel) would
lead on the one hand to a larger number of des-tinations
and on the other to a greater segmen-tation
of the products on the market. Adventure
tourism and short breaks were given as exam-ples
relating to special interest tourism (within
which we also find cultural and religious tourism,
among others). It is also worth highlighting the
work done by Greg Richards here, considered one
of the fathers of research in this specific market
segment and founder of the Association for Tou-rism
and Leisure Education (ATLAS) special
interest group “Research into Cultural Tourism”,
one of the profession’s most renowned.
Throughout the nineties and up until the
present day we have indeed witnessed a rise in
the importance of travel and holidays aimed at
cultural purposes among a growing number of
tourists (whether as the main reason for tra-vel
or as an additional element), despite the
inherent difficulties in the definition of cultural
tourism (due to the broad meaning awarded the
term “culture” and also the term “tourism”) and,
therefore, its systematic quantification.
Despite this lack of comparable quantita-tive
data, various signs may be interpreted as
a reflection of this increase. For example, in the
case of Catalonia, we have seen a large increase
in university institutions offering tourism studies
and also, very recently, Master’s and postgradu-ate
programmes in cultural tourism (1 official
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Dolors Vidal Casellas; Sílvia Aulet Serrallonga; Neus Crous Costa 137
Master’s degree at the University of Girona and
four private postgraduate and specialised pro-grammes
at the University of Barcelona and the
CETT. With regard to religious tourism, this very
academic year the University of Barcelona has
begun to offer a (non -official) postgraduate pro-gramme
on this subject; it is also worth highli-ghting
the annual conference on religious tourism
held at Montserrat Monastery since 2010.
Along with this, it is also worth bearing in
mind that Spain as a whole occupies a very high
position in terms of worldwide tourism image,
within the top three when it comes to tourist
destinations. In a national context, Catalonia is
the main tourist destination for foreigners accor-ding
to data produced by the National Statistics
Institute (INE). Statistics on incoming travel-lers
indicate that in 2009 a total of 52,231,098
people entered the country, 12,769,129 (24.25%)
of whom went to Catalonia. After Catalonia we
find the Ballearic Islands (17.30%), the Canary
Islands (15.71%) and Andalusia (14.10%). With
regard to domestic tourism (171,903,646 tou-rists),
Catalonia is second in the ranking of
preferred autonomous region destinations, with
a total of 23,047,719 visitors, just behind the
autonomous region of Andalusia (which received
29,285,636 visitors).
2.1. Tourism image
According to data from Euromonitor
International’s Top City Destinations Ranking,
Barcelona is fourth in the ranking of European
cities in terms of arrival of millions of tourists,
behind London, Paris and Rome, and 5 positions
above Madrid. Since the Olympic Games were
held in the city in 1992, it has become interna-tionally
positioned through different projects and
events (the rebuilding of urban areas such as
Montjuïc and El Raval, Gaudi Year in 2002, etc.),
turning it into a veritable icon and worldwide tou-rist
brand for Catalonia and on a national level.
This very positive global image of the region’s
capital is having repercussions, not only in
terms of tourism, but also throughout Catalonia,
improving its image and positioning, without
forgetting the significance of other factors such
as: its positioning as a sun and sand destination
in the worldwide image (Costa Brava), the gro-wing
interest in Catalan cuisine (Ferran Adrià
and other chefs awarded Michelin stars), and
not to mention sports (Barcelona F.C., the World
Motorcycle Championships).
Such is the positioning being achieved by
Barcelona and Catalonia in terms of worl-dwide
tourism image and the value awarded
to religious heritage by society that the natio-nal
body for promoting tourism, Turespaña, is
currently evaluating the possibility of using
the Sagrada Familia temple in Barcelona as
a tourism icon for Spain (the primary image
retained by visitors), like the Eiffel Tower in
France or Big Ben in Britain. More specifi-cally,
results from the study on the Tourism
Image of Catalonia presented by the Tourism
Consortium of Catalonia in 2008 indicate that,
although other products such as sun and sand
still have a very important specific weight, also
in terms of the positioning of its image, other
modes like cultural tourism and city tourism
are now establishing themselves and opening
their own markets.
Currently, the item most valued by tourists is
culture (8.3 points), and consequently the image
perceived by tourists visiting Catalonia is mainly
one of culture (41%), but also as a nature desti-nation
(24%). Among the tourism products that
define Catalonia, sun and sand still plays a pre-dominant
role (27%), although there is notable
diversity, as a total of 12 different possibilities
were mentioned in the study. The second block of
responses comprises cultural tourism (15%), city
tourism (14%) and nature tourism (13%), products
typical of a type of tourism which is more aware
of the dynamics of the region being visited and,
in theory at least, less aggressive. The remaining
31% is very diversified, but we can highlight some
responses such as snow sports (8%), rural tourism
(5%), and mountain (5%) or sports tourism (2%).
With regard to potential tourists (people who
travel but have not yet visited the region), what
is valued most highly about Catalonia, whether
by Europeans or respondents from other parts
of Spain, is first nature (44% and 37%, respec-tively),
followed by culture (35% and 27%) and
“sensations” (9% and 16%).
In the case of potential tourists from other
parts of Spain, the tourism products that define
Catalonia are very diversified, and the 12 pos-sible
options are all found within the range of
responses from 10% to 6%. However, the higher
percentages are for cultural tourism (10%), sun
and sand (9%), city tourism (9%), family tourism
(9%), nature tourism (9%) and snow tourism
(9%). With regard to potential European tou-rists,
the sun and sand product is most mentio-ned
(18%), followed by cultural tourism (15%),
nature tourism (11%) and city tourism (10%).
In this case, family tourism (9%) and snow (2%)
are less important. When considering the data
presented in this study, we must consider reli-gious
tourism to be included within the category
of cultural tourism.
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138 Structuration and branding of a religious tourism product
2.2. The concept of religious tourism
As happens with the concepts “tourism” and “cul-tural
tourism”, defining the concept of “religious tou-rism”
is a complex task, as it includes a very broad
range of aspects, motivations, behaviours, use and
perception of holy space (Hakobyan, 2010). Thus,
many different authors have attempted to define it,
and it forms part of multidisciplinary studies.
We must bear in mind at least the following four
important aspects when characterising religious
tourism (Olsen and Timothy, 2006; Shinde, 2010):
a. The tourist -pilgrim dichotomy
b. Characteristics of trips made specifically
for religious purposes
c. Economic aspects
d. The negative impacts of tourism on reli-gious
places and ceremonies
For the purposes of this article we are going
to use the definition of religious tourism propo-sed
in the book l Pellegrino e il turista (Costa,
200X, pp. 69 -82): “religious tourism is the
synthesis of traditional trips to a shrine and
cultural trips designed, guided and regulated
by religious organisations or for religious pur-poses”,
to which we might add that religious
tourism uses the tourism sector structure as a
basis, but is comprised of elements pertaining to
religious experience that “transform its quality,
purpose, pace and style of action” (Parellada,
2009).
As objectives of this branch of cultural tou-rism
we may highlight a desire to connect
with spiritual, religious, historical -cultural and
artistic values, which implies a curiosity to find
out about and perceive cultural and religious
wealth, acquire values and relate historical-
-cultural events with religious phenomena. That
said, taking an interest in cultural heritage
excludes the undertaking of religious practices
in the place being visited (Hakobyan, 2010).
Sacred places have diverse functions, depen-ding
on the visitor. For those faithful to a parti-cular
religion, they may be places which carry a
message or a system of values, a place for coming
into contact with the mysterious and an artefact
of interest. For a tourist they may represent a
point of interest due to the works of art they con-tain,
their architecture, location, atmosphere, or
simply form part of a longer route.
2.3. Religious tourism in Catalonia
Catalonia is home to a significant number of
shrines and places of worship linked to Christia-nity.
In some cases they are small chapels that
may or may not have hostels attached to them,
shrines with a local tradition of pilgrimage
on a given date, village churches, cathedrals,
monasteries and abbeys preserved in a good or
not so good condition, as well as others which
have achieved world renown such as Montserrat
Monastery.
As we have said, Christian religious heritage
is of fundamental importance for the identity
and cultural roots of Catalonia and in recent
years the first specific tourism products associa-ted
with holy and Catholic heritage have appe-ared,
despite the fact that this type of heritage
has not established itself globally; quite the
contrary, in fact, as it has been losing relative
importance within the context of global tourism
products whilst other products and brands have
become more established.
Proof of its relevance to both Catalan society and
professionals in the tourism sector is Turespaña’s
plan to use the Sagrada Família temple as an icon
for promoting Spain, although we could also cite
other proof such as the Catàleg d’Icones de Cata-lunya
(the Autonomous Government of Catalonia’s
Catalogue of Icons in Catalonia) and intangible
resources (Atles del Turisme de Catalonia, English:
Atlas of Tourism in Catalonia), which include a
high percentage of religious heritage resources in
general and Christian in particular.
Table 1: Intangible religious resources in Catalonia. Source: Atles del Turisme a Catalonia
Intangible religious resources in Catalonia
Name of resource (total: 40) Geographical location
Muslims and Moors Tortosa, Lleida, Ascó, Balaguer La Suda
Witch -hunting Guilleries, Cervera, Sant Feliu Sasserra Sant Feliu Sasserra, hold an annual
fair and will have a centre of interpretation with local government support
Medieval splendour
Montblanc, Vallbona, Poblet, Santes Creus, Barcelona, Salou La Ruta del
Císter, via Montblanc, Vallbona, Poblet (mausoleum of counts and kings).
Santa Maria del Mar, in Barcelona. Intercultural Dialogue l (Drassanes…)
Jews Girona, Besalú, Barcelona, Berga Plaça Sant Pere de Berga (Jewish street)
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Dolors Vidal Casellas; Sílvia Aulet Serrallonga; Neus Crous Costa 139
Table 2: 116 religious icons in Catalonia.
Source: Autonomous Government of
Catalonia
116 tourism icons in Catalonia
Number Name
2 The facáde of Ripoll Monastery
21 The procession and dance of the dead
in Verges
22 Saint George’s Day
23 La Moreneta
24 La festa de la Patum
25 Saint John’s Day Bonfires
39 El Pantocràtor de Sant Climent de
Taüll
40 The altar front in Avià
47 L’Esculapi d’Empúries
48 El davallament d’Erill la Vall i La
Majestat Batlló
49 Sant Carlemany
52 Visigoth -Romanesque churches
53 Sant Pere de Rodes Monastery
55 Santa Maria del Mar Church
56 La Seu Vella in Lleida
61 La Sagrada Familia and La Pedrera
77 Els pastorets
105 Montserrat
As we can see from the above tables, L’Atles
del Turisme basically ackowledges as an intan-gible
resource those values related to spiritual
faiths other than the Christian (Jewish, Moors
and pagan cults), but does not include the former,
which may be considered the main one and that to
have contributed to forming the region’s identity.
As for the list of 116 tourism icons in Cata-lonia,
although 45% of its elements are religious
(42.5% Christian), it does not have a section spe-cifically
dedicated to holy icons, faith or religion
and considers Montserrat, for example, to be
a geological icon (its interest in this respect is
undeniable, but so is its religious aspect). In sum-mary
then, all of the above leads us to state that,
despite the demand this type of product awakens
and the high potential of the Catalan region to
offer interesting and high -quality products, there
is a lack of identification of existing resources to
link them specifically with religion, and also the
creation and positioning of brands (and products).
Perhaps the only exception we might cite is the
Catalan branch of the St. James’ Way (El Camí
de Sant Jaume), which has a clearly positioned
international image as a religious and active
tourism product (it is important to acknowledge,
however, that merit for its promotion has until
now been due to the authorities of other autono-mous
regions, particularly Galicia).
3. Catalonia Sacra
On the basis of the above, Christian religious
heritage, which is of fundamental importance
from the perspective of identity and the cultural
roots of our country, has lost relative weight in
the context of the sum of tourism products on
offer: many new products have appeared that
structure or present the tourism products and
heritage on offer in Catalonia very differently
and diversely, such as Port Aventura, water
parks, the Network of Spanish Jewish Quar-ters,
industrial heritage, etc., not to mention
the numerous products linked to natural heri-tage;
whereas heritage linked to Christianity
has not established itself as a widely -recognised
product.
Although some of the products on offer may
be related to religious heritage, we will not
consider this an exclusive central theme, parti-cularly
in terms of discourse. None of these pro-ducts
were the fruit of an initiative on the part
of the Church, an institution that was once a
promotor and is now a depository, manager and
main user of this huge set of heritage assets.
There is also the case of monuments which, ori-ginally
linked to the Church, are today owned
by public administrations, now in charge of their
preservation and promotion; the Church, on the
other hand, is responsible for providing similar
services for monuments that depend upon it.
By assuming this responsibility, the Church in
Catalonia and the country itself become particu-larly
aware of their inseparable union in history
and identity. Assessment of all of the factors
involved here (existence and distribution of heri-tage
assets, individual use of these assets for
tourism purposes, flows of visitors, qualitative
analyses) leads to a series of realisations that
depict a panorama of enourmous opportunity for
organising and coordinating the heritage of the
Catalan Church into structured routes.
3.1. Description of the project
The purpose of Catalonia Sacra is to make
available to visitors – whether or not they are
Catalan – organised routes visiting the leading
sites in the Christian geography of Catalonia.
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140 Structuration and branding of a religious tourism product
This should allow them to gain knowledge and
experience of history, culture, art and spiritu-ality,
also in their specifically Catalan aspects,
explained and managed by the Church itself.
It is therefore a question of offering guide-lines
for reading these assets linking them to
their origins and primordial uses, with their
own meaning and with the existence of all these
factors in a specific setting – the Catalan dio-ceses.
But offering reading guidelines not only
involves providing the visitor with what might
appear to be an “alternative key”, it also means
integrating all the information into a coherent
whole that facilitates intellectual interpretation
and personal experience and shows up the rich
layers of this venerable heritage.
In general terms, this means including spe-cific
factors from this religious heritage in the
discourse which are, perhaps, not normally
taken into account systematically. The heri-tage
linked to the Church constitutes a large
percentage of the evidence for the tangibility,
establishment and characteristics of religion
in Catalonia during the most essential part of
its history. Without any wish to downplay the
other religions historically present on Catalan
territory, this means Christianity as it mani-fested
itself and developed in Catalonia. In
addition then, for the public interested in reli-gious
and spiritual tourism, Catalan religious
heritage, particularly the elements still used
today for religious purposes by parish, cathe-dral,
monastic or convent communities, is the
means by which to better and more directly
communicate what can be understood as the
character and singular features of Catalan spi-rituality.
In this sense, the specific visibility of the
Church in Catalonia affects the visibility of
Catalonia in general within the Spanish State
and beyond, as it provides the image of an inte-grated
heritage which will have to be taken into
consideration in the State as a whole. From
this territorial perspective, it must be borne in
mind that at certain points the project must go
beyond the limits of the Catalan territory, based
on the decision to cover the entire area of the
dioceses of Urgell (which includes the Princi-pality
of Andorra) and Tortosa (which includes
part of the province of Castelló de la Plana, in
the Valencian region).
3.2. The brand name
The brand constitutes a mental representa-tion
of the perceived attributes and benefits of
a product or service. It can be defined as a set
of ideas, beliefs and impressions people have
of a particular entity. Visitors’ behaviour when
it comes to choosing a tourist product largely
depends on their image of it and its inherent
quality, as the tourist experience, by nature, is
broadly based on preconceived images. Tourists
therefore buy the mental images created of a
destination (which need to correspond to reality)
rather than the actual places (these concepts
have been developed at length by authors like
Urry, 1990).
The question of perceived -authenticity
depends on the expectations for potential visi-tors,
which inevitably leads to dissatisfaction
and possible failure; it must be focused on 1
or 2 specific attributes of the product. So, the
expression finally chosen was “Catalonia Sacra”,
as has been repeated throughout the text. Here,
the form Catalonia comes from the Latin (a
language traditionally used by the Christian
church in its rites) and not from the English,
as might be thought considering it is the stan-dard
language of marketing. As for Sacra, this
is an adjective that attempts to communicate
the fact that what is on offer is not merely ano-ther
historicist or artistic discourse on heritage,
but rather one focusing on the spiritual, sacred
aspects of this heritage, which are the reason for
its existence.
The Catalonia Sacra brand is therefore
intended to communicate the fact that, for the
first time, organised routes covering the most
important points of the Christian geography of
Map 1: The 10 bishoprics comprising
the Tarraconense Episcopal Conference.
Source: Tarraconense Episcopal Conference
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Dolors Vidal Casellas; Sílvia Aulet Serrallonga; Neus Crous Costa 141
Catalonia are being made available to visitors,
narrated and interpreted by the Church itself.
The positioning – understood as the image the
target audience has of the product compared
to the competition – that Catalonia Sacra mus
pursue has to be a positioning by experiences.
The logo chosen to accompany the Catalonia
Sacra brand, a graphic based on a capital from
Santa Maria de l’Estany representing the Visi-tation,
follows this same philosophy. In itself it
is an element from Romanesque sculpture (that
is, an element evoking the art and the history
implicit in this heritage), but beyond that it
seeks to transmit a message of welcoming, sere-nity
and spirituality.
3.3. The routes
Catalonia Sacra includes a structure inte-grating
the heritage elements managed by the
Church at three different territorial levels of
interest from an organisational and conceptual
point of view, giving rise to the conception of
three types of route:
– centres route: including all the cathedrals
in Catalonia.
– radial routes: offered within the context of
each diocese (between 4 and 10).
– overall route: including the entire geogra-phy
of the Catalan dioceses.
We will now look at what each of these routes
consists of in a little more detail.
3.3.1. Centres route: the Cathedrals of Cata‑lonia
There is no doubt that, in the collective ima-gination
of Western societies and from the point
of view of Romanticism, the Cathedral (often
misunderstood as “big church”) has become one
of the paradigmatic historic/artistic monuments,
justifying or at least helping to provide a positive
valuation of a place as a tourist destination. The
fact is that cathedrals are usually both monu-ments
and containers of first -class works of art;
they have also had a determining influence on
the configuration of the European urban lan-dscape.
Catalonia is, in effect, a country with
cathedrals which are, and which contain, extra-ordinary
works of art receiving a remarkable
number of visitors every year.
Following the configuration in 2004 of the
new Catalan diocesan map, Catalonia has a
total of 10 cathedrals in its territory, one for
each bishopric.
Considering these centres, it is proposed to
communicate the concept of a “cathedral” as the
nucleus of a diocese, a reference point for all
believers from the same bishopric and a place
symbolising the residence of the bishop as head
and father of the Catholic community. This fact
is what, over the course of centuries, has gene-rated
extraordinary monumental and artistic
sites, but it is also shown today in a living way
in places that have not enjoyed such rich histo-ries
and abundant resources.
The centres route is not approached as a cir-cuit
that must be followed in a limited time, but,
Table 3: Existing cathedrals in the bishoprics of the Tarraconense Episcopal Conference.
Source: Catalonia Sacra
Existing cathedrals in the bishoprics of the Tarraconense Episcopal Conference
Bishopric City/Town Name
Urgell Seu d’Urgell Santa Maria d’Urgell Cathedral
Solsona Solsona Santa Maria de Solsona Cathedral
Vic Vic Sant Pere de Vic Cathedral
Girona Girona Santa Maria Cathedral
Terrassa Terrassa El Sant Esperit Basilica
Barcelona Barcelona Santa Creu and Santa Eulàlia Cathedral
Lleida Lleida New Cathedral of Lleida, L’Assumpció de
Nostra Senyora Cathedral
Tarragona Tarragona Santa Maria Cathedral
Sant Feliu de Llobregat Sant Feliu de Llobregat Sant Llorenç Cathedral
Tortosa Tortosa Santa Maria Cathedral
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 11 Nº 3. Special Issue. Julio 2013 ISSN 1695-7121
142 Structuration and branding of a religious tourism product
above all, as a way of offering all 10 cathedrals
in the Catalan territory together. It is a product
intended to:
a. Ensure a visit to a cathedral established
as a tourist resource opens the door to
visits to other cathedrals not conceptuali-sed
as such, or even as cathedrals in the
common imagination, by visualising them
as a set.
b. Providing all the Catalan cathedrals, without
exception, with quality materials for inter-preting
and facilitating visits valuing the
monument and, in some cases, filling a gap
in terms of materials of this kind.
3.3.2. Radial routes: the character of the
Catalan dioceses
The radial routes are designed as tours
offered within each diocese. Following criteria
largely based on geographical coherence and
communicational rationality, they highlight
the most important heritage elements in each
bishopric. Depending on its size and density of
heritage, each diocese articulates several routes
1. Sant Martí d’Empúries (church, archaeology and
landscape)
2. Sant Miquel de Fluvià (Romanesque architec-ture
and painting)
3. Sant Tomàs de Fluvià (Romanesque architec-ture
and painting)
4. Canons’ church of Vilabertran (architecture and
spirituality)
5. Castelló d’Empúries (basilica and museum)
6. Cadaqués (church, altarpiece and landscape)
Illustration 1: L’Empordà route:
stone, sky and sea. Source: Catalonia Sacra
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 11 Nº 3. Special Issue. Julio 2013 ISSN 1695-7121
Dolors Vidal Casellas; Sílvia Aulet Serrallonga; Neus Crous Costa 143
(between 3 and 8) covering its entire territory
and including a selection of the most important
heritage assets (as a rule between 20 and 60).
A radial route starts from the diocesan capital
or, depending on the case and the structure of
the region, from a strategic population centre
within the diocese, to create a tour which may
or may not be circular, preferably undertaken
by car and exploring a particular area of the
diocese. Given general criteria of practicality
and practicability, this area may be defined
according to different characteristics: landscape,
history, artistic sites, etc., and a title is sugges-ted
for each one, acting as a kind of sub -brand
to define it. The estimated time for covering a
route would be one or two days, as the range is
intended for day -trippers or those on weekend
breaks. By way of example, here is the radial
route proposed for the Empordà area:
3.3.3. Overall route: geography and identity
of Christianity in Catalonia
The idea of the overall route is to create a
tour (or tours) which, by combining various ele-ments
of Church heritage in Catalan territory,
should aspire to show the presence of religion,
and specifically Christianity, in Catalonia. In
this sense, an overall route is conceived as a
way of structuring heritage elements – like
the centres route – and, at the same time, as a
collection of practicable tours – like the radial
routes. It could be explored in stages, organised
flexibly within a general concept, and has a dual
aim:
a. to include various types of heritage linked
to the church and represented by the most
notable elements which are also the most
appropriate ones for communicating and
articulating the region (in this sense, the
regional communications network and ter-ritorial
interest take priority)
b. explaining the fundamental character of
the Christian heritage (spaces, works of
art, landscape and territory) in relation
to the Christian faith, along with its rela-tionship
with the history and identity of
the country.
In the overall route an attempt will be made
to show the different aspects of the situation of
Christianity in Catalonia over time as part of
a story making it possible to move from more
general issues (the anthropology of the holy, spi-rituality,
the form and use of holy spaces, sacra-lisation
of natural places, priesthood, mysticism,
monasticism, religion and community, religion
and power) to events in the Catalan context
(history of the Church in Catalonia, establish-ment
and presence of the monastic and conven-tual
orders, organisation and expansion of the
diocesan structure) to more specific issues rela-ting
to particular centres, places or buildings
being visited.
This will be achieved by selecting the most
important Church heritage elements in Catalo-nia,
making it possible to exemplify and explain
the principles of the programme satisfactorily.
Many of these places, already established as
tourism centres either independently or in the
context of other routes, will form true heritage
links, making it easy to see what the visitor
facilities will be. This overall route, which will
also have an identifier (own sub -brand), is still
currently being configured.
3.4. Communication of the brand and inter-pretation
of heritage elements
As a brand and a product, this range needs
to be coherent – from the point of view of practi-cability
(criteria of communication, accessibility,
time needed) but also with a view to making it
possible to communicate a series of additional
realities linked to the same elements. These rea-lities
connect them with one another and with
the region and therefore improve comprehension
of this set of elements (regional or landscape
coherence, historical and administrative criteria,
etc.).
The first phase of creating the product inclu-des
the creation of the centres routes (tours
of each cathedral) and a radial route for each
diocese. Once this has been done and once the
corporate identity (brand and logo) have been
defined, it will be necessary to begin brand
communication activities. The brand and the
various products on offer will largely be structu-red
through an official Catalonia Sacra website,
where it will be possible to look up information
about the suggested elements and routes as well
as possible ways of covering them. The design of
this website is currently being prepared, and it
is hoped it will come into operation during the
first half of this year.
As well as information about Catalonia
Sacra, existing routes promoted by other regio-nal
bodies (county councils, municipal councils,
etc.) and ways of combining the suggested routes
will also be mentioned. This will allow tourists
not only to discover the holy and spiritual Chris-tian
legacy but also to gain a deeper knowledge
of the region they are visiting, based on various
aspects of its identity.
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 11 Nº 3. Special Issue. Julio 2013 ISSN 1695-7121
144 Structuration and branding of a religious tourism product
Clearly, once this portal comes into opera-tion,
an online marketing strategy must be
implemented. Among other actions, this will
include publishing a newsletter (which means
having one or more databases of end customers
and professionals in the sector), search engine
positioning, using 2.0 tools (social networks,
video and image websites, etc.) and, finally,
managing digital identity (What are they saying
about us on the net?) and online public rela-tions
(professional bloggers, press releases on
electronic media, etc.) (Peñarroya 2010). Just
as important as online public relations are per-sonal
public relations. For this reason, when
the project comes into operation there will be
presentations to members of the Tarraconense
Episcopal Conference so that they know exac-tly
what the Catalonia Sacra brand is and how
their heritage is finally being promoted (follo-wing
their indications). After this initial inter-nal
communication, actions will be carried out
to familiarise tourism professionals from diffe-rent
areas with the product so that they know
about it and in order to establish cooperative
links with them.
Concerning the end customer, it is felt that
signposting and interpretation tools for each of
the elements comprising the routes are particu-larly
important. Tours will therefore be offered
with specialist guides. In addition, from the
beginning, all cathedrals will be supplied with
information leaflets regarding their Christian
spiritual value (rather than their historical or
artistic value). Later it is hoped that all heritage
elements will be supplied with these materials.
In the same way, the project website also needs
to become an important point for information
and heritage interpretation, so that visitors can
prepare for their visits.
4. Conclusion
Besides the possibility of generating financial
resources through the sale of specific products
linked to the brand, notable benefits are obtai-ned
merely through Catalonia Sacra’s action in
publicising and promoting the heritage, most
importantly the following:
a. Offering the public quality tours of the
Church’s cultural heritage.
b. Giving an overall view of the history of the
Catalan Church.
c. Increasing visits to the different spaces
and redistributing flows.
d. Alongside this, obtaining a platform for
publicising the Church’s cultural heritage.
e. Obtaining an active, up -to -date website
about the Church’s cultural heritage.
f. Promoting this existing heritage which,
except for some outstanding cases, is usu-ally
off the main tourist circuits, from a
new perspective.
g. Contributing to increasing the social
esteem of Christian heritage, which should
lead to improved preservation of these ele-ments.
In tourism terms, it is hoped that Catalonia
Sacra will help to distribute tourist flows over
the territory of Catalonia, particularly redi-recting
flows from the most saturated nodes
(such as Barcelona Cathedral) to others which,
despite their interest, are practically unknown
even among Catalans (such as Sant Feliu de
Llobregat Cathedral). In addition, these are
routes mainly to be followed by car (rather than
walking or cycle tourism routes), so their prac-ticability
does not depend on the weather and
they are not subject to traditional tourist sea-sons.
The very name of the brand, Catalonia
Sacra, reveals a clear response to the growing
demand for religious and spiritual tourism, not
just in terms of tangible heritage elements but
also by offering a reading or interpretation of
interest to that type of visitor. At the same time,
the discourse created is also interesting for the
local population, who are very often unaware of
this part of their history.
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Recibido: 17/04/2013
Reenviado: 03/05/2013
Aceptado: 01/07/2013
Sometido a evaluación por pares anónimos