Reinventing Northeastern Religious Tourism in Brazil during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The current national and international scenario has specific characteristics stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic that spread throughout the planet in early 2020, motivating a series of political, social, environmental, economic and cultural discussions regarding different institutions, religious practices and social actors. In the context of social and physical distancing, decreed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and made flexible in some countries, such as Brazil, the adaptations made to reduce religious displacement significantly impacted social, economic and cultural activities in both small pilgrimage sites and large centers of national devotion. The present paper aims to problematize and describe Catholic religious celebrations present in the nine (9) Brazilian northeastern states during the pandemic. It follows a qualitative approach with digitally collected data, which brings to light perceptions and concerns that are instrumental in building an overview of religious tourism. As a result, it presents three dimensions that point to challenges for the reinvention of regional religious tourism, hierarchizing the predominance of devotional resistance over technological bets and possible partnerships with other sectors of local public life.