Ecotourism, Religious Tourism, and Religious Naturalism

Much can be learned about both ecotourism and religious naturalism by bringing the two into conversation through the concept of religious tourism. Ecotourism can be perceived as religious tourism because the concept of nature that serves as a basis for ecotourism is also used in the process of 'making nature sacred'. Specifically, the example of tourism in Monte Verde, Costa Rica demonstrates how nature can be made sacred in ecotourism. Finally, grounded in studies of religious naturalism, this article concludes that thinking of ecotourism as religious tourism might shed light on concerns regarding religious practice, conceptions of nature, and the apparent inability of religious naturalism's non-anthropocentric ethic to deal with issues of environmental racism and social justice.