The influence of religious holidays on tourism at Vysočina region

This thesis deals with the impacts of religious feasts and holidays on tourism at Vysočina region. It is divided into several parts. In the first part the work introduces some terms that may not be known to all readers. The second part pays attention to more detailed characteristic of religious tourism, its participants and specifics. The World Religious Tourism Association is introduced in this chapter. There is also a description of religious tourism in the Czech Republic with the brief specification of sacred monuments and introduction of the pilgrimage tradition in the country. The next part concerns the inclusion of religious monuments, pilgrimages and mostly the feasts and holidays within the cultural heritage. There is briefly introduced the tradition of pilgrimage in the Czech Republic and we can find out a list of types of the religious monuments and buildings according to the National Heritage Institute. The most important part of this chapter are Christian feasts and holidays. They are sorted out, described by their origin and the Saints and female Saints are mentioned separately. At the end of the thesis in the annex is presented the chronological overview of the most important feasts of the Czech liturgical calendar. The following chapter deals with the Vysočina region and its characteristics. It acquaints the reader with the most important natural and cultural attractivities of this region and briefly describes tourism and religious tourism in this part of the region. At the end of this chapter are presented the most visited and most important religious monuments and places of pilgrimage of the region. Finally in the last part are evaluated the outcomes of the research realized on place of pilgrimage (St. John Nepomuk at Zelená Hora near Žďár nad Sázavou)