Lourdes
Established in the second half of the 19th century as a place of worship dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the town of Lourdes, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, quickly emerged as a major pilgrimage centre for Catholics from all over the world, consequently attracting a steady influx of international visitors. Despite periods of decline due to global events (world wars, financial crises), the destination managed to strengthen its position throughout the 20th century. Transport providers, hoteliers, restaurateurs, and shopkeepers have helped ensure the permanence of a tourism system set up in the 19th century to reap economic benefits from the Apparitions. However, since the 2000s, tourism in Lourdes has started to show signs of a downturn. With very little diversification, heavily reliant on international visitors and with some structural weaknesses, it was greatly impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, which exposed and exacerbated the underlying difficulties of the past two decades. Will this crisis help to trigger a virtuous movement to revitalise the destination?
“Lourdes is successful, but the main question remains whether it will last” wrote Zola in the first part of his trilogy, Les Trois Villes: Lourdes, Paris, Rome (1893-1898), already questioning the future of a system in Lourdes based on the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to a young shepherdess, Bernadette Soubirous. Despite the concerns expressed by the novelist, the town showed resilience (or perhaps resistance?) in the face of the various crises in the 20th century (world wars, financial crises, etc.). However, from the early 2000s, tourism in Lourdes found itself facing difficulties: visitor numbers stagnated, hotel occupancy rates fell, and the number of establishments closing without being reopened rose so much that it begged the question whether Lourdes had become obsolete as a tourist destination, according to Chadefaud (1987), who describes a dual degradation of the “material offer” (facilities, infrastructure) and the “immaterial offer” (values, perceptions of the visitor space), leading to the tourist site’s gradual marginalisation. Before the onset of the global pandemic, tourism in Lourdes was already in decline, exacerbated by the health crisis, and 2020 was effectively a lost year due to the sudden halt in international visitors and the ban on large gatherings (Jarraud et al., 2021). However, could this “crisis” be viewed as an “indecisive yet decisive moment” for Lourdes, offering it the “possibility to take action, make decisions, change, transform itself” (Morin, 2010: p. 177)
A municipality in decline in the foothills of the Pyrenees
Located in the Hautes-Pyrénées department, the municipality of Lourdes has a population of 13,132 (INSEE, RP 2019) which has been in constant decline since 1968 (figure 1), under the effect of negative natural and migratory balances (INSEE, RP 1968 to 2017). Between 2013 and 2019, the population’s average annual growth rate of the population was at its lowest since 1968: -1.8%, while, during the same period, the department as a whole recorded a slight increase of 0.1% in the population, as a result of a positive migratory balance (INSEE, RP 1968 to 2019). Moreover, the population is increasingly old; the number of people under the age of 30 accounted for less than 24% of the town’s population in 2019 (compared to 29% for the department), a figure which rose to 28% in 2013. People over 60 represented 33.86% of the population in 2013 and more than 40% in 2019 (INSEE, RP 2013 and 2019). The unemployment rate in Lourdes is also higher than in the rest of the department: 17.6% in Lourdes compared to 13.5% in the Hautes-Pyrénées in 2019, an increase compared to 2013 (16.7%), a sign of the deteriorating economic situation in the municipality. Therefore, Lourdes is seen as a somewhat unappealing town in an attractive region, a fact that is also reflected in its very high vacancy rate for accommodation which soared from 10.4% in 2008 to 18.1% in 2019 (while the average for the department was 9.6% in 2019, according to INSEE).

Figure 1: Evolution of the population of Lourdes by age group
Author’s own analysis based on census data from INSEE, 2008, 2013, and 2019
Thus, Lourdes is as a paradoxical tourist destination. While it has great tourist appeal, this is not accompanied by residential appeal. The demographic situation in the town is difficult: in addition to a high number of housing vacancies, there are also many empty shops and hotels and the share of second homes was just 12% of total housing in 2019 according to INSEE (much lower than the average rate in the department: 23.4%). Nevertheless, Lourdes boasts a large amount of commercial accommodation (23,450 beds as of 1 January 2021, nearly 85% of which were hotel beds according to INSEE). Therefore, the tourist function rate is high (more than 216 beds per 100 residents) and more than half of the active workforce works in the trade and service sector as a result of the town’s strong tourism focus. Although in crisis, Lourdes continues to be a major pilgrimage centre for Catholics worldwide.
A leading tourism destination built in the 19th century following the Apparitions
In the second half of the 19th century, Lourdes gradually emerged as a leading destination for religious tourism, an eminent and much greater place of unique significance, as a result of the symbolic value attributed to it and its recognised social standing, an exemplary site, or at least built as an example, a “templum” established in contrast to ordinary profane spaces (Micoud, 1994: p. 12). Its attractiveness owes nothing to chance, but to the concerted efforts of many stakeholders – religious and secular, private and public – to transform the Apparitions of 1858 into the breeding ground for a new “tourism product”. Indeed, “Lourdes is not an isolated case in the annals of the Pyrenees”; it is a pilgrimage centre that came into being at a relatively late date and does not constitute “either an exception or a novelty” compared to older Pyrenean sanctuaries (Huysmans, 1906: p. 9). However, it did benefit from a favourable local and national context that capitalised on the arrival of the railway in 1866. The train greatly contributed to the rapid increase in visitors to Lourdes. In 1873, the train station in Lourdes recorded 216 special trains, transporting 140,000 pilgrims from 47 dioceses (Chadefaud, 1987).
Local and spontaneous pilgrimages, of which there were many in the Pyrenees during the 19th century, were gradually replaced by a national and soon an international Lourdes Marian pilgrimage with the setting up of the first foreign pilgrimages from Germany and Belgium in 1875, followed by those from Portugal, Northern Italy, and Spain in 1877 (Chadefaud, 1987). In 1876, Pope Pius IX acknowledged the importance of the Lourdes pilgrimage with the Coronation of the Virgin; this exceptional year saw Lourdes welcome 500,000 pilgrims thanks to a “great effort of propaganda” (Zola, 1995 [1894]: p. 141). While the number of pilgrims fluctuated from year to year depending on events, there was a general upward trend in the number of visitors to the Marian city, which, in 1908—the year of its fiftieth anniversary—received over one million pilgrims, most of whom arrived on one of the 525 special trains chartered for the occasion (Chadefaud, 1987). These believers, many of whom were seeking miraculous healing, were also accompanied by tourists and inquisitive people, who, outside of the “organised tours”, visited Lourdes during their stay at nearby spa towns. Thus, Lourdes had firmly established itself as an international pilgrimage centre in the second half of the 19th century (Rinschede, 1992).
These mass long-distance trips in trains specially chartered to transport pilgrims to Lourdes, could no longer be improvised; their organisation was all the more difficult because of the fact that they involved a large number of people who were sick: “They were the rolling hospitals of disease at its last stage, of human suffering rushing to the hope of cure, furiously seeking consolation between attacks of increased severity, with the ever-present threat of death—death hastened, supervening under awful conditions, amidst the mob-like scramble” (Zola, 1995 [1894] : p. 49‑50). These unique convoys led to a closer relationship between ecclesiastical authorities, private transport providers (such as the Midi Railway Company) and accommodation services. The foundations of the Lourdes system were being laid.

Figure 2: Sweeping view of Lourdes from the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary
Photograph: S. Clarimont, 27/03/2021
Spatial organisation of the destination around a sacred site: the sanctuary
The flows of tourists and worshippers in Lourdes, especially during large pilgrimages, contributed greatly to structuring the space (Figure 2). This manufacturing of sites resulted in the constitution of a dual city, which led to the decline of the “old town”, replaced by the “new town: “that town which had sprung up so quickly on the other side of the castle, that rich city with houses as big as palaces, whither flowed all the life, all the luxury, all the money of Lourdes, so that it was incessantly growing larger and wealthier, whilst its elder sister, the poor, antique town of the mountains, with its narrow, grass-grown, deserted streets, seemed near the point of death” (Zola, 1995 [1894]: p. 284). The dual organisation of this space highlighted by Zola in 1894 is still visible today; there is a clear boundary between the upper town, reserved for locals, where religious symbols are scarcely present, and the lower town, frequented by worshippers in which the public space is characterised by the presence of the sacred (figure 3). Moreover, the space designated for religious practice is not only visited by the faithful; it is also visited by ordinary tourists who visit Lourdes as a “curiosity”, resulting in a hybridisation of practices (Chadefaud, 1981; Chevrier, 2013).
This sacred space is referred to as the “sanctuary”: a defined area dedicated to worship, imbued with sacred value, designed to welcome the faithful on their pilgrimage (Chevrier, 2016). This sanctuary comprises two main locations: the central sites (grotto, basilica, stations of the cross) and the associated sites. At its heart, the sanctuary features three basilicas and two churches, built between 1862 and 1988, on a 52-hectare estate around the Massabielle grotto, purchased from the City by the Episcopate (figures 2, 3, and 4). In total, there are 22 places of worship within the sanctuary, allowing for several masses to take place at the same time. During peak periods, masses are celebrated everywhere “on makeshift altars made from planks”; some are even high up, in the gallery of the great organs; and the priests assist one another, and the aid cleans the chalice after communion, instead of the officiant (…) It is the same in the basilica, in the crypt, in the village church, in the convents, and everywhere it is possible to erect makeshift altars; it is a whirlwind of express masses”, “a high-speed mass service”(Huysmans, 1906 : p. 126 et 185). Even today, Masses can be celebrated simultaneously in many languages, either by a priest accompanying the pilgrimage or by one of the international priests working within the sanctuary.

Figure 3: The spatial organisation of Lourdes

Figure 4: The Massabielle grotto during the pandemic
Photograph: S. Clarimont, 27/03/2021
A multitude of practices
The activities engaged in by pilgrims to Lourdes are centred around the iconic sites of the Marian city, in the lower town, which includes the Massabielle grotto (figure 4). While practices may vary, they invariably involve some of the most important acts that define the spirit of Lourdes, which have changed very little over the past century. Prayers, communions, confessions, rosaries, and other common acts of faith are accomplished at all the sites of worship within the sanctuary.
Rites associated with water have played a major role in the Lourdes pilgrimage since its origin. In the 19th century, the water of Lourdes was declared “ordinary” (in contrast to the medicinal waters of the Pyrenean spas which were hugely popular); but because of this, it became “supernatural,” since the healing it offered could not be explained scientifically by its physicochemical properties. Not without a certain irony, Zola and Huysmans argued that immersion in the water of dubious quality, which had become a hideous ‘sauce’, a sort of greyish dishwater”, in blatant disregard for basic hygiene rules, was really the “permanent miracle” of Lourdes (Huysmans, 1906: p. 64). Nevertheless, the popularity of Lourdes water has never waned. In 2019, eleven pools—closed for immersion since COVID-19 and now reserved for the “water gesture” – were dedicated to women, while six were reserved for men. Before the pandemic, about 400,000 people visited these pools each year to bathe. Pilgrims often waited for hours to immerse themselves in the water. If they were unable to enter the pools, pilgrims could—and still can—collect water and drink from the fountains around the grotto (figure 5).

Figure 5: Pilgrims crowding around the fountains to fill various containers with water during the celebration of the rosary
Photograph: S. Clarimont, 13/10/2023
Another essential custom in Lourdes involves touching the rock in the grotto of apparitions. Physical contact is an integral part of any pilgrimage practice (Dupront, 1987). Here again, queues are often long for this privilege. Rituals relating to light also play an important role. The sight of thousands of burning candles fascinates visitors: “The splendour of the Grotto; it seemed to her as if a hundred thousand tapers were burning there behind the railing, filling the low entrance with the glow of a furnace and illuminating, as with star rays, the statue of the Virgin, which stood, higher up, at the edge of a narrow ogive-like cavity.” (Zola, 1995 [1894]: p. 175). The sale of candles was a huge business (Huysmans, 1906). A wide selection of candles is still available to the faithful today, housed within a “chapel of light” that was established in 2017, comprising various pavilions built in wood and metal. The light is also in motion during the processions that have been held there every evening since the 19th century. From April to October, at 9 pm, pilgrims gather to walk together in a procession that follows a precise route within the sanctuary. As early as the late 19th century, Zola noted the “continual wonder” of “this ceaseless march of this serpent of fire” (Zola, 1995 [1894]: p. 299). The combination of religious and secular practices in Lourdes attracts many visitors to attend the ceremony without joining the procession. Passing the stations of the cross is also a common experience for pilgrims and other visitors. The main route, developed between 1901 and 1912 on the Espélugues hill, comprises fourteen stations commemorating the Passion of Christ. In 1958, a fifteenth station was added to represent the Resurrection of Christ. As this path is not accessible to wheelchair users, a second way of the cross, comprising 17 stations, was created behind the Chapel of Light in the 2000s.
While these acts of faith are confined to the sanctuary area, or the “holy city”, they are accompanied by other types of tourist activities that extend beyond this narrow perimeter: visits to associated sites “in the footsteps of Bernadette”, from Boly Mill to the village of Bartrès, including the parish church, the prison cell, and the hospice, allowing visitors to contemplate the main sites that shaped the life of the young shepherdess. Finally, the purchase of religious items at the shops located along the streets adjacent to the sanctuary now covers a much wider area. The range of souvenirs has increased to include items devoid of religious significance, catering to pilgrims and other visitors who flock to Lourdes from April to October from all over the world and who often arrive by air.
From train to plane: the evolution of transport methods used to reach the destination
The train, which contributed greatly to the prosperity of Lourdes in the second half of the 19th century, remained the preferred method of transport for pilgrims for almost a century but has gradually faced competition from coaches and airplanes. The municipal archives of 1932 mention only two means of access: rail, distinguishing between special trains and regular services, and road, differentiating between organised coach trips and individual car travellers. The 1951 municipal archives indicate that the train was still the primary mode of access (53.9% of arrivals), although the importance of road travel had increased (46% of arrivals), and that the airplane was starting to appear (0.1% of arrivals).
The train’s dominant position started to gradually wane in the second half of the 20th century in favour of the airplane. The frequency of special trains was greatly reduced. In 2014, all Corail trains were replaced by TGV services. Two years later, night trains were discontinued, but were partially reinstated in December 2021. At the same time, air travel became a major transport method. The airport in Ossun, about ten kilometres from Lourdes, was almost completed when the first planes from Belgium started to arrive in May 1948 (Chélini and Branthomme, 1982). Today, with the advent of low-cost airlines, direct flights connect Lourdes to Rome, Milan, Naples, Palermo, London, Dublin, Brussels, Krakow, Malta, and Paris. However, it is not possible to determine precisely which method of transport was used by visitors to Lourdes due to a lack of detailed statistics. Although figures for air or rail traffic are available, they present the total number of passengers arriving at Tarbes Lourdes Pyrénées, regardless of their final destination or their reasons for visiting, whether for pilgrimage or other purposes. Also, other airports, such as Bordeaux or Toulouse, which are further away but offer many more services, are used by pilgrims travelling to Lourdes. Despite any precise data, passenger traffic at Tarbes Lourdes Pyrénées airport appears to be heavily dependent on pilgrims. This traffic plummeted in 2020 and 2021: 121,996 passengers recorded in 2021, namely a drop of nearly 74% compared to 2019, according to statistics from the DGAC.
Obsolescence, crisis and… revival of the Lourdes-Pyrenees destination?
The COVID-19 pandemic brought travel to a complete standstill and had a particularly devastating impact on the tourism sector and, consequently, the economy of Lourdes. While the Sanctuary welcomed 522,720 pilgrims on organised pilgrimages in 2019, along with about 500,000 individual pilgrims, only 25,000 pilgrims undertook the journey to Lourdes in 2020 as part of an organised pilgrimage. The destination’s strong specialisation in religious tourism meant that it was even more vulnerable to the crisis since the majority of visitors to Lourdes are elderly, unwell, and from overseas. With restrictions on travel (especially international travel) and strict bans on large gatherings, the health measures imposed by the pandemic severely disrupted the Lourdes system and the Sanctuary’s response sparked intense debate among tourism professionals in Lourdes. Faced with the impossibility of welcoming pilgrims, the Sanctuary proposed virtual pilgrimages and prayers via the internet and social media to remain “connected” to its pilgrims. It invested in high-tech equipment and created a completely virtual events offering, such as Lourdes United which was held on 16 July 2020, the anniversary of the last apparition. The creation of a television studio, broadcasts on foreign TV channels, mobilisation through YouTube, and broadcasts on social media have contributed to the success of this new form of gathering together, which continues to thrive today. However, this new online offering has not met widespread approval, particularly among hoteliers, and it is not enough to counteract the decline in visitor numbers.
Indeed, although the pandemic severely impacted a destination heavily reliant on international pilgrims, Lourdes was already in difficulty before the 2020 health crisis, no doubt as a result of a relative lack of adaptation in a changing world. Indeed, a century after the publication of Zola’s novel, the way Lourdes works has changed very little and the destination is now rather outdated, and completely out of touch with the secularisation of our societies and the evolving trends in tourist behaviour. This can be seen in a marked decline in visitor numbers and a reduction in accommodation capacity, with a significant decrease in commercial accommodation.
The analysis of visitor trends in Lourdes clearly points to a reduction in overnight stays since the early 2000s, except for a peak in visitor numbers in 2008, with more than 4 million overnight stays with the Jubilee marking the 150th anniversary of the Apparitions, an event attended by Pope Benedict XVI. Just before the pandemic, in 2019, Lourdes recorded 789,617 arrivals, totalling 2,142,383 hotel nights (INSEE data), with hotel accommodation being the most common choice for visitors. In the Hautes-Pyrénées department, Lourdes occupies an essential position, accounting for 75% of the department’s hotel overnight stays and 94% if only taking account of international overnight stays. Lourdes is a destination with a pronounced seasonal nature, with visitor numbers fluctuating in line with the pilgrimage calendar, experiencing peak activity from Easter in March-April through to Palm Sunday in October. The rest of the year, the town feels as if the town is at a standstill, except the days around 11 February, the anniversary of the Virgin Mary’s first apparition to young Bernadette, a week when the city comes back to life. The economy of the destination relies heavily on these seasonal fluctuations, driven primarily by the influx of mainly foreign pilgrims.

Figure 5 – Visitors to Lourdes in number of hotel overnight stays
Author’s own analysis based on INSEE data (municipal tourism database)
Indeed, Lourdes welcomes a majority of international pilgrims. In 2018, 63% of overnight stays were attributed to international visitors, mainly from Europe (figure 6). Italy remains the main nationality, accounting for one-third of international overnight stays, while the United States leads for non-European overnight stays with 4.54%.

Figure 6 – Share of foreign overnight stays over 2% in 2018
Author’s own analysis based on Lourdes Tourist Office data
Hotels continue to be the main form of accommodation in Lourdes: in 2019, 74% of overnight stays were taken in hotel establishments. However, the hotel sector is struggling, with many establishments closing or being reduced over the past two decades (figure 7).

Figure 7 – Number of hotels in Lourdes between 2000 and 2023
Author’s own analysis based on Lourdes Tourist Office data
This figure not only reflects the demise of the oldest hotels (figure 8) but also mergers among hotels since, during the same period, the total number of rooms fell from 15,225 to 9,483, namely a decrease of “only” 37.7%. Over the past ten years, the quality of hotels appears to have improved (although these figures should be interpreted with caution due to changing standards and classification criteria), with a marked decline in the number of rooms in non-classified hotels or one-star hotels (-25%), and an increase in the number of four-star rooms (15%). However, this does not mean a significant improvement in the hotel occupancy rate (figure 9). Indeed, the occupancy rate remains low, close to 50% (50.9% in 2018 and 47.5% in 2017, according to HPTE data), placing it among the lowest in France, with the national average at 62.5% (Coach Omnium, 2018).

Figure 8: Former hotel in Lourdes closed for many years
Photograph: S. Clarimont, 27/03/2021

Figure 9: Evolution of the distribution of rooms by hotel category between 2013 and 2023
Author’s own analysis based on INSEE data (municipal tourism database)
Heavily reliant on one sole form of tourism organised around the sanctuary, the Lourdes tourism system was showing signs of decline as early on as the 2000s, well before the COVID-19 crisis. The new municipal council, appointed in 2020, is trying to implement a new strategy aimed at diversifying the clientèle with a tourist rebranding of the destination as a gateway to the Pyrenees (Jarraud et al., 2022). This rebranding aims to attract visitors who might come to Lourdes for its mountains, wide-open spaces, and outdoor sports, especially cycling, as opposed to almost exclusively religious pilgrims. Furthermore, it wants to attract “individual” alongside the “organised and group” tourism that has always defined Lourdes.
While the main objectives of diversifying the clientele, rebranding tourism, and fostering economic development had already been identified in the Lourdes Grand Site Tourism Development Strategy (2014-2020), strongly supported by the former Midi-Pyrénées regional council, they have not really produced any tangible results. Perhaps the current strategy, “Lourdes, Heart of the Pyrenees”, which is more ambitious and aligned with the Avenir Lourdes Plan (initiated in 2022 and implemented in collaboration with the French government as part of the Recovery plan), will truly initiate a meaningful transition of the tourism landscape in Lourdes.
Sylvie CLARIMONT and Nathalie JARRAUD
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