Religious tourism and seduction: the case of Sacred Mount of Varallo

Since 2003 the Sacred Mount of Varallo is included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO because it represents a successful integration of architecture and fine art into a landscape of great beauty for spiritual reasons. As the other Sacred Mounts of Piemonte and Lombardia (Italy), it represents a place in witch all visitors (tourist or pilgrims) couldn’t resist the attraction of and environment full of spiritual and natural seduction. According to these characteristics, the paper aims to define who visits the Sacred Mount of Varallo and which experiences he/she is looking for. In this way we try to understand how a classical religious tourism destination could seduce the third millennium tourist. The research methodology is based both on official statistical data, and on a questionnaire delivered to visitors.