“To trade in the sofa for a pair of walking shoes and… to leave a mark…”. Pilgrimaging and religious tourism of academic youth

This research was conducted to determine the level of activity within religious tourism and pilgrimaging of academic youth, and to get to know the motives and the key forms of pilgrimages among students. The results demonstrate that for more than 68% of the researched group of academic youth, pilgrimaging and visiting holy places combined with prayer and pious practices (religious tourism) has a marginal meaning. More than a half of the researched students did not go on a pilgrimage last year. A vast majority (more than 77%) of the researched group did not show any activity in terms of participation in the feast of youth, i.e. World Youth Day held in Krakow in 2016 (87.1% of respondents live in Małopolska). There is also a mediocre interest among young people in religious events that take place in the local Church, in the celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. 64% respondents said that they had not gone through a Door of Mercy. (There were more than 660 of such doors in Poland). The research results also confirm that frequent pilgrimages with parents in childhood or adolescence translate into a higher pilgrimage activity of respondents after completion of their school education. On the contrary, a lack of family pilgrimage traditions has a big impact on a lack of interest in travelling with religious motives in adult life. A drop in religiousness among Polish youth in the last ten years, demonstrated by the Institute of Statistics of the Catholic Church, undoubtedly affects the pilgrimage activity of young people. Based on the data concerning the organized pilgrimage traffic in the biggest Polish sanctuaries (Jasna Góra, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska), we can conclude that after 2005, there has been a fall in a number of religious youth groups. Field research done by the author of this study in the network of pilgrim routes to Santiago de Compostela (the Way of James) proves that “the most beautiful way of the world”, as Camino de Santiago is called, is not a route/space that Polish youth is interested in. (This was also confirmed by the questionnaire research: Only 7% of all researched students have been walking along the Way of St. James in Poland and only 4% – abroad).