Re-Enchanting Rural Sacred Sites: A Critical Realist Approach to Tourism Experience and Management in Post-Secularity
本研究基于对塞浦路斯两座乡村教堂的比较质性分析，识别出三种游客取向（虔诚观察者、历史沉浸者、共情寻求者），并提出了尊重多元灵性、增强乡村教堂“活力”的管理策略。
Tourism research on spiritual and post-secular travel has advanced understanding of sacred-site experiences yet often treats spirituality as an “umbrella” construct, conflating religious, secular, and transcendent orientations. Drawing on critical realism, this study addresses this ontological flattening by examining how distinct spiritual worldviews shape tourism experience beyond surface narratives. Based on a comparative qualitative analysis of two rural churches in Cyprus, three visitor orientations are identified: pious observer , historical immersionist , and empathetic seeker , the latter open to non-denominational transcendence. The paper contributes to the theorisation of post-secular tourism by disentangling religious, secular, and transcendent forms of spirituality, thereby enhancing conceptual and analytical precision. This distinction enables an understanding of symbolic, performative, reflexive and embodied forms of engagement at sacred sites. The study proposes strategies that respect plural spiritual possibilities and enhance the “livingness” of rural churches, such as reintroducing furniture for nostalgic engagement and context-sensitive souvenirs that trigger altruism.