Potentialités touristiques de la basilique marie-reine-des -apôtres de mvolye et valorisation du tourisme religieux au cameroun

Abstract

Located in Central Africa, Cameroon presents a particular history in its evangelisation. The catholic mission of Mvolye in terms of evangelisation is a “mother of missions”, created in as from 1901 by the Pallottin fathers. Speaking of the development of religious tourism, is in way a means to recall the Cameroonian apostolate. To have a thought on this ecclesiastic representation depicts undertaking the promotion and valorisation of the practice of religious tourism which is a practice that vehicles an assembly of religious activities carried out by some people throughout their trips on sacred places in relation to their religious identities and motives undertaken. The principal objective guiding this research is to rethink the promotion and the revalorisation in the practice of religious tourism in Cameroon based on the enormous tourism potentials which it presents. To achieve these objectives, we proceeded to the use of a system approach and the integration of the hypothetic-deductive method. The tools used were direct observations on the field, surveys, and the consultation of relevant documents in relation to our work. Consequently, from the 200 questionnaires administered, the analysis of data revealed that: through the religious site, Basilica Mary-Queen of Apostles of Mvolye, second after the that of Yamoussoukro, the presence of several pilgrim tourists testify of the of the dynamism in the practice of religious tourism. The basilica site of Mvolye from its symbolic, historical and cultural vocation holds a high position among other religious touristic sites in Cameroon and in the Catholic Church. However, the real challenge in this context is that of establishment of a real collaborative chain between various actors. In sum, the valorisation of the basilica site of Mvolye can boost, render dynamic the practice of religious tourism in Cameroon.