Fr. Miguel Lopes Neto
World Tourism Day 2026. A church is not a backdrop
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Fr. Miguel Lopes Neto
World Tourism Day 2026. A church is not a backdrop
Évora, an August morning. Outside the Chapel of Bones, a queue forms for a photo. Hardly anyone notices the sentence carved at the entrance, reminding visitors that the bones stored within await their own. It is not a macabra curiosity. It is a meditation on life and death, left behind by friars four centuries ago. But it doesn't fit into a fifteen-second video.
On September 27, UN Tourism invites us to reflect on the "Digital Agenda and Artificial Intelligence to Redesign Tourism." In Portugal, this redesign has already begun—and not always for the better. The same algorithm that pushes thousands of people into the same street in Alfama, to the same viewpoint in Porto, or at the exact same hour to the Cova da Iria leaves the chapel of a village in the Beira region in the shadows. The key to that chapel rests at the home of an eighty-year-old neighbor who doesn't own a smartphone. What doesn't appear on the screen ceases to exist. The Dicastery for Evangelization warns that the tourist experience "risks being reduced to what the algorithm predicts as pleasant, preventing the discovery of the wonder of personal encounter."
Every search and every step tracked by an application reveals a great deal about who is traveling. The Holy See calls for clear, binding rules so these data do not turn into a tool of control. It also reminds us that an unfair digitalization worsens inequality: those living in a territory without signal coverage are left out twice over.
The answer is not to unplug. It is to learn. We call it educommunication and literacy in tourism: knowing how to read what is published and knowing how to tell what one possesses. A cathedral turned into a backdrop for the sunset, a sanctuary marketed as a "must-see attraction," an itinerary generated by a machine that scrambles centuries and saints. None of this is a outright lie, but all of it empties the meaning. The stone remains, while the community that prays there, marries off its children, and mourns its dead is lost.
Technology can help—a lot. It can describe an altarpiece through audio for someone who cannot see, stagger visitor traffic throughout the day, and give a voice to a forgotten pilgrimage. The Vatican message recognizes that artificial intelligence "can become a valuable ally for sustainable and accessible tourism, provided it remains an instrument at the service of the person." That is the condition, and it is met through education and training, not through more apps.
That is why we offer a few concrete appeals. To parish priests and sanctuary rectors: do not hand over the history of your places to others. To local councils and regional tourism boards: when you publish a church, state what it is for. To hospitality and tourism schools: train interpreters, not just promoters. To content creators: before filming, ask. And to every visitor: lower your phone for one minute. There are things you can only see that way.
Author: Fr. Miguel Lopes Neto
Director of Pastoral Care for Tourism - Portugal
The authors are responsible for the choice and presentation of the facts contained in this document and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of Tourism and Society Think Tank and do not commit the Organization, and should not be attributed to TSTT or its members.
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