PILGRIMAGE ACADEMY ● ENGLISH
BREAKING:
January 24th
We are at one of the most acknowledged international tourism fairs, FITUR in Spain.
Pilgrimage Adacemy 4
IV. Sacral-Spiritual Tourism Visitor Management Workshops
13-15. February, 2025
Máriapócs
Hungary
Breaking News:
In December 2024, the Hungary NEXT Tourism Design Workshop and András J. Molnár, as founding members, facilitated the Pilgrim Academy's official affiliation with the World Network of Religious and Spiritual Tourism Destinations. For more details, click on the picture.
The 4th Pilgrimage Academy will be held between February 13 and 15, 2025, focusing on the necessity of networking and best practices, featuring domestic and international speakers. This year's event will take place at one of Hungary's national shrines, in Máriapócs.
The opening session of this sacred-spiritual tourism visitor management workshop offers a unique experience: on the afternoon of the first day, invited tourism professionals and representatives of visitor centres, institutions, and organizations will have the chance to immerse themselves in the spiritual atmosphere of a pilgrimage by travelling together on a dedicated bus from Budapest to Máriapócs. Of course, participants may also arrive individually in the evening of February 13 or the morning of February 14.
This conference series, traditionally held under the patronage of Archabbot of Pannonhalma T. Cirill Hortobágyi, will focus on networking this year. Unlike previous years, the organizers will offer special interactive activities to promote personal and organizational introductions, providing participants with the opportunity to explore new collaborations. Beyond the tourism and spiritual aspects of pilgrimage reception, attendees will be able to discover new partnerships that could enhance their services and offerings, contributing to a more sustainable and competitive religious tourism sector in Hungary, its neighboring countries, and along pilgrimage routes worldwide.
The event will welcome distinguished speakers from both Hungary and abroad, including:
- Kocsis Fülöp, Archbishop-Metropolitan
- Gyuricza Kata Sára, representing the World Religious and Spiritual Tourism Destinations Network
Szabolcs Szontágh, Secretary of the National Religious Tourism Council
- Márta Dragonits, speaking on the Ars Sacra Festival as a network
Gábor Soós, Hungarian National Commission for UNESCO, Ministry of Culture and Innovation
Mirkó Petényi, Managing Director, Active and Ecotourism Development Centre
- Jackie Randle, from the World Trails Network
- Nathaniel Scrimshaw, representing the Pan American Trails Network
- Ali Pretty, founder of the Kinetika Beach of Dreams movement from the UK
The program will also feature Péter Csermely, Lutheran university chaplain and academic, who will provide spiritual reflections throughout the event.
Participants can look forward to a rich professional programme, including:
- Traditional Greek Catholic Utrenye prayer
- Visits to the Basilian Monastery and Collection
- Plenary and breakout sessions
- Roundtable discussions
- Divine Liturgy
- Kollyba Lenten tasting experience
Those interested can register for the event via this link:
Please download the official poster of the event from this link:
Pilgrimage Academy PLUS
We are organizing an international workshop at the Collegium Pazmanianum, in Vienna, Austria. We are still working on the details and will share the information as soon as the program is finalized.
Domestic and foreign experts met in 2024 in the 800-year-old Abbey Church of Pannonhalma and in the buildings and conference hall of the surrounding gymnasium at the Pilgrim Academy, which was organized for the third time, where there was an opportunity to present good practices, exchange experiences and get inspiration.
The participants at the sacral-spiritual visitor management workshop discussed what the ROUTE is about. The more than 90 professional and church actors, experts involved in the visitor management of destinations, as well as operators of pilgrimage points and routes, as well as travel organizers, were able to learn from each other during the two-day active, discovery program.
Perhaps we don't even think about how many turns our path takes us through during our lives, and even if we do experience this, it is not certain that we will understand the purpose and curve of our wandering at first. There are moments when we stop or have to stop, evaluate, reevaluate.
Spiritual situations, moments and places have a decisive role in this, they help in the process.
Wandering is also discovery, getting to know ourselves, which requires time and space, so we have tourist services, exhibition sites, and deepening, cultural and sacred points at our disposal.
In order for these services to be not just business solutions, but soul-to-soul connections that reveal self-discovery, tourism players and professionals must learn and practice this role just as religious places or pilgrimage organizers do modern tourist service.
"I'm a pathfinder, on several levels and in different areas, but for now I can't find the right words to describe the experience and the feelings I've experienced in the last 2 days in Pannonhalma in the Main Abbey, thanks to the Pilgrims Academy. Thank you, and this on the way and I am grateful that you encouraged me to participate. I will try to give back the impossible in a few words and present what characterized these two days: - Shared values - Openness - Humor - Acceptance, inclusion - Hospitality - Working together and thinking together - Authenticity - Honesty - Transcendence. And there are three "top" things that I learned and experienced: 1.) The power of silence, 2.) The purpose of the journey as an offering, 3.) The importance of common values." Gyöngyvér Szabó
"Imagine yourself here. Even if you close your eyes. If you look inside a little, you feel that this space surrounds you, holds you. And now imagine 80 people here. A mass, with different stories, backgrounds, thoughts. A mass with its curious buzz , with his energy. Then imagine monks singing psalms to each other in two parts. When they reach the end, they remain motionless, an almost palpable silence and peace descends on the church. Then this silence and peace moves towards the 80 people. He caresses everyone one by one, and as if by magic infinite calm will take over everyone. They will connect with each other, with everything... It's imperceptible how much time passes without moving like this, in the endless silence. You can't even hear the rustling of coats. Space and time disappear. The twist is that I was able to experience all of this within the framework of a conference.” Márta Duchai