Katolickie klasztory kontemplacyjne i życie zakonne w Polsce w kontekście turystyki

Catholic contemplative monasteries and the consecrated life in Poland in the context of tourism Visiting monasteries and staying there have become an attractive tourist experience shared by numerous tourists and perceived by them as truly “touching and authentic”. Not only is a monastery in itself a subject of tourists’ interest with all of its physical attributes, but also the idea and the specific way of life behind it. In the paper, a special attention was paid to the participation of Polish contemplative monasteries in the so-called “monastic tourism”, in order to establish to what extent this phenomenon is close to religious tourism as well as to different forms of cultural tourism meant in the broad sense. Answers to these questions should lie in the results of a survey conducted among the Polish contemplative monasteries preceded by an analysis of motivations and conditions transforming ‘a monastery’ into a tourist destination (external individual attributes such as history and architecture were rejected).