Religious Tourism

Religious tourism, also commonly referred to as faith tourism, is a form of tourism whereby people of faith travel individually or in groups for pilgrimage, missionary, or leisure (fellowship) purposes.

Tourism Segments

Religious tourism comprises many facets of the travel industry including:

• pilgrimages;

• missionary travel;

• leisure (fellowship) vacations;

• faith-based cruising;

• crusades, conventions and rallies;

• retreats;

• monastery visits and guest-stays;

• faith-based camps;

• religious tourist attractions.

Statistics

Although no definitive study has been completed on worldwide religious tourism, some segments of the industry have been measured:

• According to the World Tourism Organization, an estimated 300 to 330 million pilgrims visit the world's key religious sites every year.

• According to the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, Americans traveling overseas for "religious or pilgrimage" purposes has increased from 491,000 travelers in 2002 to 633,000 travelers in 2005 (30% increase). North American religious tourists comprise an estimated $10 billion of this industry.

• According to the Religious Conference Management Association, in 2006 more than 14.7 million people attended religious meetings (RCMA members), an increase of more than 10 million from 1994 with 4.4 million attendees.

Christian tourism is a subcategory of religious tourism. As one of the largest branches of religious tourism, it is estimated that seven percent of the world's Christians - about 150 million people - are "on the move as pilgrims" each year.

Christian tourism refers to the entire industry of Christian travel, tourism, and hospitality. In recent years it has grown to include not only Christians embarking individually or in groups on pilgrimages and missionary travel, but also on religion-based cruises, leisure (fellowship) vacations, crusades, rallies, retreats, monastery visits/guest-stays and Christian camps, as well as visiting Christian tourist attractions.

Statistics

Although no definitive study has been completed on Christian tourism, some segments of the industry have been measured:

• The Christian Camp and Conference Association states that more than eight million people are involved in CCCA member camps and conferences, including more than 120,000 churches.

• Short-term missions draw 1.6 million participants annually.

• Christian attractions including Sight & Sound Theatre attracts 800,000 visitors a year while the Holy Land Experience and Focus on the Family welcome center each receives about 250,000 guests annually. Recently launched Christian attractions include the Creation Museum and Billy Graham Library, both of which are expected to receive about 250,000 visitors each year as well.

• 50,000 churches in the United States possess a travel program or travel ministry.

Pilgrimage

In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey or shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of many major religions participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim.

Effects on trade

Pilgrims contributed an important element to long-distance trade before the modern era, and brought prosperity to successful pilgrimage sites, an economic phenomenon unequaled until the tourist trade of the 20th century. Encouraging pilgrims was a motivation for assembling (and sometimes fabricating) relics and for writing hagiographies of local saints, filled with inspiring accounts of miracle cures. Lourdes and other modern pilgrimage sites keep this spirit alive.

Christian pilgrimage was first made to sites connected with the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the 4th century, when pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers like Saint Jerome. Pilgrimages also began to be made to Rome and other sites associated with the Apostles, Saints and Christian martyrs, as well as to places where there have been apparitions of the Virgin Mary.

Major Christian pilgrimage sites

• The Holy Land, location of many events in the Old Testament and New Testament:

• Jerusalem, site of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus;

• Bethlehem, birthplace of Jesus and King David;

• Nazareth, Jesus' hometown;

• Sea of Galilee, site of Jesus' early ministry;

• Mount Tabor, site of the Transfiguration;

• Bethany, site of the resurrection of Lazarus.

• Rome

• on roads such as the Via Francigena;

• site of the deaths of Saint Peter, Saint Paul and other early martyrs;

• location of relics of various saints, relics of the Passion;

• important churches and headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church.

• Istanbul, Turkey, former capital of the Byzantine Empire and the see of one of the five ancient Patriarchates and first among equals among the Patriarchs of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

• Hagia Sophia, former cathedral and burial place of many Ecumenical Patriarchs.

• Lourdes, France, site of apparition of the Virgin Mary, the second most visited Christian pilgrimage site after Rome.