Re-Enchanting Rural Sacred Sites: A Critical Realist Approach to Tourism Experience and Management in Post-Secularity

Abstract

Tourism research on spiritual and post-secular travel has advanced understanding of sacred-site experiences yet often treats spirituality as an “umbrella” construct, conflating religious, secular, and transcendent orientations. Drawing on critical realism, this study addresses this ontological flattening by examining how distinct spiritual worldviews shape tourism experience beyond surface narratives. Based on a comparative qualitative analysis of two rural churches in Cyprus, three visitor orientations are identified: pious observer, historical immersionist, and empathetic seeker, the latter open to non-denominational transcendence. The paper contributes to the theorisation of post-secular tourism by disentangling religious, secular, and transcendent forms of spirituality, thereby enhancing conceptual and analytical precision. This distinction enables an understanding of symbolic, performative, reflexive and embodied forms of engagement at sacred sites. The study proposes strategies that respect plural spiritual possibilities and enhance the “livingness” of rural churches, such as reintroducing furniture for nostalgic engagement and context-sensitive souvenirs that trigger altruism.