RESILIENCE ROMEIRA: THE PROMOTION OF RELIGIOUS TOURISM IN THE GEOSSANTUÁRIO DE SANTA CRUZ DOS MILAGRES (PIAUÍ)
Pilgrimage resilience; Devotional practices; Religious tourism.
This thesis aims to understand the resilient devotional practices of pilgrims, co-opted by the planning of religious tourism policies at the Shrine of Santa Cruz dos Milagres, the main pilgrimage center in the state of Piauí. In tourism, resilience is forged by economic, political and socio-cultural processes. Pilgrimage resilience consists of the adaptive capacity of pilgrims, supported above all by discourses, feelings and practices that shape the subjective competencies of the faithful and is linked to religious tourism promotion. This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study. The data was described and interpreted based on the material collected from the documentary survey, semi-structured interviews, participant observation and photographic records. The time frame starts in the 2000s, with the projection of ecclesial and tourist policies. The main results are that devotional activities are constantly in motion, requiring an adaptive capacity in the face of continuous changes, innovations and external influences, which allow for flexibility (re-signification) of the old ways of carrying out pilgrimages and other devotional and tourist experiences. The resilience of the pilgrimage, woven from the demands of the tourist market, promotes spectacle (performance), bringing different forms and functions to the sacred scene. The interpretations made it possible to establish the thesis that resilience in religious tourism integrated into tourism planning makes up the devotional experience of the pilgrims, representing not only a response to crisis situations, but standing out as an intrinsic characteristic of devotions that adapt, resist and (re) organize themselves through the interrelationship with sacredness and place.