General characteristics of religious tourism in Croatia

Abstract: Croatia has a rich sacral (tangible and intangible) heritage, which undoubtedly has great cultural value, and part of the religious heritage has been included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO. The fact is, however, that, except when it comes to top attractions, churches as tourist facilities, are poorly attended and do not get almost no direct tourism income.. In this paper, after the introductory explanations of basic terms related to religious tourism and pilgrimage, we explore the basic features of religious tourism in Croatia, both on tourist attractions, as well as on the tourist demand. It also presents the results of empirical research on the socio-demographic profile of the author, the role of religion in the life of pilgrims and the satisfaction of the visitors to the Shrine of Mary of Bistrica in 2013 among 50 pilgrims in Marija Bistrica. The main objective is to determine how the pilgrims perceived the tourism offer in religious tourism