RELIGIOUS TOURISM IN CROATIA WITH AN ANALYSIS OF THE CROATIAN NATIONAL SHRINE OF OUR LADY OF BISTRICA AND THE NATIONAL SHRINE OF SAINT JOSEPH CHURCH OF CROATS

Religija je, moglo bi se reći začetnik turizma, ljudi su religiozna bića koja su od samih početaka težila k božanskom. Upravo te težnje su ih nukale na traganje. Na traganje za božanskim čime su se nerijetko upućivali što na kraća što na duža putovanja. Iz tih putovanja se razvio turizam kakav danas znamo, hodočašća kakva danas poznajemo i na koja se i sami upuštamo. U Hrvatskoj postoji sve ukupno pet nacionalnih svetišta od čega će u ovome radu biti obrađena dva; jedno od najstarijih i jedno od najmlađih Hrvatsko nacionalno svetište Majke Božje Bistričke u Mariji Bistrici i Nacionalno svetište svetog Josipa Crkve u Hrvata u Karlovcu. Provedena je analiza turističkih pokazatelja za prethodno navedena svetišta te je podrobnije obrađena tematika hodočašća, odnosno samog vjerskog turizma.People are religious beings who have a spired to the divine from the beginning, and religion may be regarded to be the inventor of tourism. The se desires compelled them to look for answers. They frequently embarked on shorter and longer journey sin quest of the divine. Tourism as we know it now, as well as pilgrimages as we know them today and that we undertake ourselves, arose from the se journeys. Croatia has five national shrines, two of which will be explored int his paper: the Croatian National Shrine of Our Lady of Bistrica in Marija Bistrica and the National Shrine of Saint Joseph Church in Croatia in Karlovac. An examination of tourism indicators for the afore mentioned sites was conducted, as well as the subject of pilgrimage