Faith-Based Travel Market Valued At $18 Billion
By: Joshua Chan Christian Today Correspondent
http://au.christiantoday.com/article/faith-based-travel-market-valued-at-18-billion/2716.htm
The World Religious Travel Association (WRTA) estimates that the faith based travel market is worth $18 billion. Last year WRTA came into existence through the formation of an association for faith-based travel agencies. Their existence came about due to an increase demand for faith-based vacations. Their mission is simple and clear. Kevin Wright, the director for WRTA, said: “We will advise, and assist the travel industry in working with the religious market and establish faith based vacations as a key travel option for the religious consumer.” The World Tourism Organization reported that faith-based travel is one of the fastest growing segments of the industry; with numerous surveys indicating that one-quarter of travellers said they were currently interested in taking a spiritual vacation (e.g. religious retreat, or pilgrimage) and that the appeal of a spiritual vacation spans all age groups.The World Travel Market, based in London, recently said that faith-based travel was one of the top critical issues and trends facing the travel and tourism industry in the 21st century. Zealandier Tours of New Zealand became the first Christian based tour company to service New Zealand customers in Easter 2006
May 19, 2007
300 million worldwide religious travelers (WTO)
CNN NEWS
Cyprus to tempt tourists with saints' bones
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/05/15/cyprus.reut/
NICOSIA, Cyprus (Reuters) -- The bones of martyred saints and somber shrines may not be at the top of every tourist's must-see holiday wish list.
But the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, better known as a major European sun-and-sea spot, is determined to delve into its rich cultural heritage and exploit the budding -- and more wholesome -- market of religious tourism.
"We are more than just a sand and sea and sex destination," said George Michaelides, chairman of the Cultural and Special Interest Tourism Association.
Industry officials say about 100,000 of the island's 2.5 million tourists already come for the cultural and religious monuments and the market has seen a boost since Dan Brown's bestseller "The Da Vinci Code" made religious quests popular.
"Cyprus has always been associated with religion. In earlier times there was no ship going to the Holy Land without stopping at Cyprus. We are known as the island of saints," Michaelides said.
According to the World Tourism Organization, 300 to 330 million pilgrims visit the world's key religious sites every year. Cyprus is eager to take a big bite out of this growing market and boost the island's main industry.
In cooperation with the powerful Church of Cyprus and tourism officials it is launching religious tours for the first time this summer.
"Cyprus packs a huge amount of monuments in such a small space," said Vakis Loizides, a tourist officer at the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO). "The island's special relationship with saints, like Lazarus and Helen, make it very attractive."
Visitors can go on a tour tracing the footsteps of Saint Paul, who traveled from Antioch to Cyprus in 45 AD, and visit the pillar in the town of Paphos where he was tortured and, according to his second epistle to the Corinthians, given "forty bar one lashes" for preaching Christianity.
Or they can visit the church of Saint Lazarus, who church tradition says came to Cyprus after his resurrection by Christ, and served as a bishop on the island.
Most of his bones were sent to Constantinople in the 9th century but the faithful can see his skull, on display in a glass-topped box in the church.
Da Vinci Code
"We are seeing an increase in demand," said Angelos Mylonas, manager at Mantovani Plotin Travel. "After 'The Da Vinci Code', there is an interest from people to see Greek Orthodox churches."
Scattered over the Troodos mountains, Cyprus's 10 medieval timber-roofed churches, listed as UNESCO world heritage monuments for their stunning wall paintings, are at the top of many religious tourists' lists, he added.
"Tourists already know where they are going and what they want to see. They are extremely well read, they know places not even we are aware of," Mylonas said.
A 300,000 Cyprus pound ($700,000) tourist office campaign part-funded by the European Union and the Cypriot government is aimed primarily at travelers from Greece and Orthodox nations of the former communist bloc like Russia, but also at Orthodox communities in the United States, Britain and Australia.
The CTO is publishing religious tourism guides in several languages and a traveling exhibition of Orthodox artifacts is also planned.
Religious tolerance
Officials say that apart from the large number of shrines spanning millennia, Cyprus's comparative advantage is that it houses monuments of different religions, including one of Islam's most important mosques, the 648 AD Hala Sultan Tekke in the town of Larnaca.
"Cyprus is tolerant to various dogmas. Tourists can see Muslim and Orthodox monuments co-exist. This is very special," Loizides said.
He said the Church, originally skeptical about anything to do with tourism which it associates with lewd behavior, is now eager to promote "religious culture tours". It is cooperating in planning festivals and ceremonies so tourists can attend them.
"There is international interest in religious tourism. Given the violence and wars in the world, there is a belief that if developed properly, it can lead to a dialogue between cultures," he said.
Others in Cyprus see the development of religious tourism from a more practical perspective.
"This will help diversify the product of the island, change its image," Michaelides said. "These people come off-season and stay longer than the average tourist. They are better spenders, who go around and not just from the hotel to the pub."
Cyprus to tempt tourists with saints' bones
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/05/15/cyprus.reut/
NICOSIA, Cyprus (Reuters) -- The bones of martyred saints and somber shrines may not be at the top of every tourist's must-see holiday wish list.
But the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, better known as a major European sun-and-sea spot, is determined to delve into its rich cultural heritage and exploit the budding -- and more wholesome -- market of religious tourism.
"We are more than just a sand and sea and sex destination," said George Michaelides, chairman of the Cultural and Special Interest Tourism Association.
Industry officials say about 100,000 of the island's 2.5 million tourists already come for the cultural and religious monuments and the market has seen a boost since Dan Brown's bestseller "The Da Vinci Code" made religious quests popular.
"Cyprus has always been associated with religion. In earlier times there was no ship going to the Holy Land without stopping at Cyprus. We are known as the island of saints," Michaelides said.
According to the World Tourism Organization, 300 to 330 million pilgrims visit the world's key religious sites every year. Cyprus is eager to take a big bite out of this growing market and boost the island's main industry.
In cooperation with the powerful Church of Cyprus and tourism officials it is launching religious tours for the first time this summer.
"Cyprus packs a huge amount of monuments in such a small space," said Vakis Loizides, a tourist officer at the Cyprus Tourism Organization (CTO). "The island's special relationship with saints, like Lazarus and Helen, make it very attractive."
Visitors can go on a tour tracing the footsteps of Saint Paul, who traveled from Antioch to Cyprus in 45 AD, and visit the pillar in the town of Paphos where he was tortured and, according to his second epistle to the Corinthians, given "forty bar one lashes" for preaching Christianity.
Or they can visit the church of Saint Lazarus, who church tradition says came to Cyprus after his resurrection by Christ, and served as a bishop on the island.
Most of his bones were sent to Constantinople in the 9th century but the faithful can see his skull, on display in a glass-topped box in the church.
Da Vinci Code
"We are seeing an increase in demand," said Angelos Mylonas, manager at Mantovani Plotin Travel. "After 'The Da Vinci Code', there is an interest from people to see Greek Orthodox churches."
Scattered over the Troodos mountains, Cyprus's 10 medieval timber-roofed churches, listed as UNESCO world heritage monuments for their stunning wall paintings, are at the top of many religious tourists' lists, he added.
"Tourists already know where they are going and what they want to see. They are extremely well read, they know places not even we are aware of," Mylonas said.
A 300,000 Cyprus pound ($700,000) tourist office campaign part-funded by the European Union and the Cypriot government is aimed primarily at travelers from Greece and Orthodox nations of the former communist bloc like Russia, but also at Orthodox communities in the United States, Britain and Australia.
The CTO is publishing religious tourism guides in several languages and a traveling exhibition of Orthodox artifacts is also planned.
Religious tolerance
Officials say that apart from the large number of shrines spanning millennia, Cyprus's comparative advantage is that it houses monuments of different religions, including one of Islam's most important mosques, the 648 AD Hala Sultan Tekke in the town of Larnaca.
"Cyprus is tolerant to various dogmas. Tourists can see Muslim and Orthodox monuments co-exist. This is very special," Loizides said.
He said the Church, originally skeptical about anything to do with tourism which it associates with lewd behavior, is now eager to promote "religious culture tours". It is cooperating in planning festivals and ceremonies so tourists can attend them.
"There is international interest in religious tourism. Given the violence and wars in the world, there is a belief that if developed properly, it can lead to a dialogue between cultures," he said.
Others in Cyprus see the development of religious tourism from a more practical perspective.
"This will help diversify the product of the island, change its image," Michaelides said. "These people come off-season and stay longer than the average tourist. They are better spenders, who go around and not just from the hotel to the pub."
May 12, 2007
World's Leading Cruise Lines join WRTA
The World's Leading Cruise Lines joined the World Religious Travel Association this month.
As faith-based cruising is one of the fastest growing segments of religious tourism, more than a dozen full ship Christian charters now take place annually. Carnival, Holland America, and Princes are among the cruise lines most often chosen by faith-based groups. Princess Cruises offers a Holy Land cruise with excursions to Jerusalem, Nazareth, and much more.
To learn more about the World's Leading Cruise Lines visit the homepage of www.religioustravelassociation.com. These cruise lines include:
* Holland America Lines
* Carnival Cruise Lines
* Princess Cruises
* Cunard Line
* Costa Cruises
* The Yachts of Seabourn
As faith-based cruising is one of the fastest growing segments of religious tourism, more than a dozen full ship Christian charters now take place annually. Carnival, Holland America, and Princes are among the cruise lines most often chosen by faith-based groups. Princess Cruises offers a Holy Land cruise with excursions to Jerusalem, Nazareth, and much more.
To learn more about the World's Leading Cruise Lines visit the homepage of www.religioustravelassociation.com. These cruise lines include:
* Holland America Lines
* Carnival Cruise Lines
* Princess Cruises
* Cunard Line
* Costa Cruises
* The Yachts of Seabourn
May 2, 2007
New York Times & World Religious Travel Association
NY TIMES
April 29, 2007
21st-Century Religious Travel: Leave the Sackcloth at Home
By JOSHUA KURLANTZICK
IT’S not often you meet a god. But on a pouring day last summer in Dharamsala, home to the Tibetan exile community in India, I did. In a monastery outside town, I was shown into a vast, bare room. At the front sat the 17th Karmapa Lama, third-ranking leader in Tibetan Buddhism — a figure considered almost a god by many Tibetans. The Karmapa fled Tibet when he was a boy, but in exile he had become a man, in his early 20s, with a broad, shaved head and meaty arms beneath his flowing monk’s robes.For nearly an hour, I questioned the Karmapa about Buddhism, world politics, his own life. Sometimes, he would answer as I imagined a monk should, gazing into the distance and delivering oblique replies. Sometimes, he would answer like a boy asked a school question he does not know, scrunching up his face as he scrambled for a reply. In either case, the Karmapa answered like a figure who knows an entire people follow his every word.The Karmapa finally left, draping a traditional white scarf on my shoulders; I walked out feeling I might never have such an unusual experience. But when I descended from the Karmapa’s quarters, I realized my audience had not been so unique. Buddhist travelers from Hong'>http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/asia/china/hong-kong/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo">Hong Kong and Taiwan waited outside to see the Karmapa. His assistants lugged through the monastery bags full of the visitors’ offerings, which, bizarrely, included enough vials of multivitamins to stock a health food store. (Maybe he was lifting weights back in his private quarters.)Not that I should have been surprised. While religious-oriented travel has been around since the first pilgrimages, in recent years it has developed into a much larger and more segmented market, with niches ranging from high-end religious travel to volunteer-oriented religious travel to modern-day pilgrimages like a visit to the Karmapa.Kevin Wright, executive director of the World Religious Travel Association, a trade group set up this year to help organize the faith-based market, says there is an increase in “the overall demand for religious travel by people of faith,” which, in turn, has brought growth to companies serving this market. Next year, Mr. Wright’s group will be host of the first World Religious Travel Expo.In fact, a study released in November by the Travel Industry Association revealed that a quarter of travelers said they would be interested in taking a spirituality-oriented vacation. Today, the global religious travel market has reportedly become an $18 billion-a-year industry.Travel experts credit several factors for this upsurge. Offering travel programs allows churches and other institutions a competitive advantage in the search for constituents. Many younger religious travelers want a vacation that combines faith with fun, and churches recognize a need for an active religious vacation. Nations with critical religious sites, like Scotland, home to some of the fathers of the Reformation, have begun to brand themselves to faith-oriented tourists.Also, major travel companies have gotten into the action, which brings more publicity to the field. Globus, a giant European travel firm, has opened a religious-travel section, which runs trips ranging from vacations that explore the Christian theology of C. S. Lewis to excursions following the Polish heritage of Pope'>http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/_john_paul_ii/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Pope John Paul II.As the religious travel market has boomed, it also has broken into niches. Once, religious-oriented travel meant either trips to historic sites, like Jerusalem or Mecca, or volunteer vacations to help needy people in developing nations. But in recent years, religious travelers have expanded their vacation options, though traditional trips like an Israel tour or volunteering with a group like American Jewish World Service remain popular.“In the past five to 10 years, the religious market has transitioned from a ‘poverty/penitential travel mentality’ to a first-class travel mentality,” said Mr. Wright. “The religious market now pays for first-class travel products and services. This is a major departure from several millennia of religious travel tradition.”Tour operators and religious-oriented travel agents are realizing religious travelers do not necessarily need sackcloth and ashes. Royal Caribbean now allows Christian travel operators to run specialty cruises on its ships, like Cruise with a Cause, a Christian cruise to the Bahamas featuring Christian pop stars like Matthew West and opportunities to land ashore for mission work. Holland America has done the same, allowing operators to run cruises to Alaska on its vessels featuring Christian naturalists, gospel singers and a religious bookstore where the on-board casino normally is.In the most notable example of high-end faith travel, this year, the ultra-luxury operator TCS Expeditions offered a $45,000 tour around the world called Great Faiths. On the trip, tourists were to take in the greatest religious sites in the world, from Varanasi’s'>http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/asia/india/varanasi/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo">Varanasi’s sacred waters to Ethiopia’s'>http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/africa/ethiopia/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo">Ethiopia’s subterranean churches — all on one excursion. They also planned to hop from site to site in private jets and spend evenings at luxurious hotels, from the King David in Jerusalem to the Oberoi in Delhi.Other religious travelers, including church groups, have recognized that spiritual healing fits naturally with physical healing, or with active pursuits like skiing or hiking. Recognizing this, luxury spas in countries like India and Thailand have begun offering Buddhism-related packages for travelers coming for more prosaic services like massage.The religious travel boom also means it is easier for tourists to research their trips and find a vacation suited to their exact needs. In the religious-travel section of the comprehensive site flyertalk.com, travelers now trade tips on the best places to find kosher food in China and opinions on the best religious festivals to visit in the world. http://www.christian-travelers-guides.com/ lists links to guidebooks and many other Web sites. The World Religious Travel Association Directory (on the Web at http://www.religioustravelassociation.com/) offers links to tour operators around the world.Or, you could take the traditional approach: Wander foreign lands until you find a site that seems holy to you. On one of my last days in Dharamsala, I attended Friday night services at the local synagogue. Standing outside, under the cover of a tarpaulin roof, rows of men in yarmulkes and women in traditional long Indian skirts rocked back and forth as they chanted joyous hymns welcoming the Jewish Sabbath.Later, after services, we all walked upstairs to a communal room, where we sat in rows on the floor, breaking off tiny pieces of challah and dipping them into communal bowls of hummus and salad. Across from me, a young Israeli traveler eagerly tore into his bread. “I just got out of the army — I’ve been here a few weeks,” he said. “I could stay here for months. I don’t even need to do anything here. Just be here.”
April 29, 2007
21st-Century Religious Travel: Leave the Sackcloth at Home
By JOSHUA KURLANTZICK
IT’S not often you meet a god. But on a pouring day last summer in Dharamsala, home to the Tibetan exile community in India, I did. In a monastery outside town, I was shown into a vast, bare room. At the front sat the 17th Karmapa Lama, third-ranking leader in Tibetan Buddhism — a figure considered almost a god by many Tibetans. The Karmapa fled Tibet when he was a boy, but in exile he had become a man, in his early 20s, with a broad, shaved head and meaty arms beneath his flowing monk’s robes.For nearly an hour, I questioned the Karmapa about Buddhism, world politics, his own life. Sometimes, he would answer as I imagined a monk should, gazing into the distance and delivering oblique replies. Sometimes, he would answer like a boy asked a school question he does not know, scrunching up his face as he scrambled for a reply. In either case, the Karmapa answered like a figure who knows an entire people follow his every word.The Karmapa finally left, draping a traditional white scarf on my shoulders; I walked out feeling I might never have such an unusual experience. But when I descended from the Karmapa’s quarters, I realized my audience had not been so unique. Buddhist travelers from Hong'>http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/asia/china/hong-kong/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo">Hong Kong and Taiwan waited outside to see the Karmapa. His assistants lugged through the monastery bags full of the visitors’ offerings, which, bizarrely, included enough vials of multivitamins to stock a health food store. (Maybe he was lifting weights back in his private quarters.)Not that I should have been surprised. While religious-oriented travel has been around since the first pilgrimages, in recent years it has developed into a much larger and more segmented market, with niches ranging from high-end religious travel to volunteer-oriented religious travel to modern-day pilgrimages like a visit to the Karmapa.Kevin Wright, executive director of the World Religious Travel Association, a trade group set up this year to help organize the faith-based market, says there is an increase in “the overall demand for religious travel by people of faith,” which, in turn, has brought growth to companies serving this market. Next year, Mr. Wright’s group will be host of the first World Religious Travel Expo.In fact, a study released in November by the Travel Industry Association revealed that a quarter of travelers said they would be interested in taking a spirituality-oriented vacation. Today, the global religious travel market has reportedly become an $18 billion-a-year industry.Travel experts credit several factors for this upsurge. Offering travel programs allows churches and other institutions a competitive advantage in the search for constituents. Many younger religious travelers want a vacation that combines faith with fun, and churches recognize a need for an active religious vacation. Nations with critical religious sites, like Scotland, home to some of the fathers of the Reformation, have begun to brand themselves to faith-oriented tourists.Also, major travel companies have gotten into the action, which brings more publicity to the field. Globus, a giant European travel firm, has opened a religious-travel section, which runs trips ranging from vacations that explore the Christian theology of C. S. Lewis to excursions following the Polish heritage of Pope'>http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/_john_paul_ii/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Pope John Paul II.As the religious travel market has boomed, it also has broken into niches. Once, religious-oriented travel meant either trips to historic sites, like Jerusalem or Mecca, or volunteer vacations to help needy people in developing nations. But in recent years, religious travelers have expanded their vacation options, though traditional trips like an Israel tour or volunteering with a group like American Jewish World Service remain popular.“In the past five to 10 years, the religious market has transitioned from a ‘poverty/penitential travel mentality’ to a first-class travel mentality,” said Mr. Wright. “The religious market now pays for first-class travel products and services. This is a major departure from several millennia of religious travel tradition.”Tour operators and religious-oriented travel agents are realizing religious travelers do not necessarily need sackcloth and ashes. Royal Caribbean now allows Christian travel operators to run specialty cruises on its ships, like Cruise with a Cause, a Christian cruise to the Bahamas featuring Christian pop stars like Matthew West and opportunities to land ashore for mission work. Holland America has done the same, allowing operators to run cruises to Alaska on its vessels featuring Christian naturalists, gospel singers and a religious bookstore where the on-board casino normally is.In the most notable example of high-end faith travel, this year, the ultra-luxury operator TCS Expeditions offered a $45,000 tour around the world called Great Faiths. On the trip, tourists were to take in the greatest religious sites in the world, from Varanasi’s'>http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/asia/india/varanasi/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo">Varanasi’s sacred waters to Ethiopia’s'>http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/africa/ethiopia/overview.html?inline=nyt-geo">Ethiopia’s subterranean churches — all on one excursion. They also planned to hop from site to site in private jets and spend evenings at luxurious hotels, from the King David in Jerusalem to the Oberoi in Delhi.Other religious travelers, including church groups, have recognized that spiritual healing fits naturally with physical healing, or with active pursuits like skiing or hiking. Recognizing this, luxury spas in countries like India and Thailand have begun offering Buddhism-related packages for travelers coming for more prosaic services like massage.The religious travel boom also means it is easier for tourists to research their trips and find a vacation suited to their exact needs. In the religious-travel section of the comprehensive site flyertalk.com, travelers now trade tips on the best places to find kosher food in China and opinions on the best religious festivals to visit in the world. http://www.christian-travelers-guides.com/ lists links to guidebooks and many other Web sites. The World Religious Travel Association Directory (on the Web at http://www.religioustravelassociation.com/) offers links to tour operators around the world.Or, you could take the traditional approach: Wander foreign lands until you find a site that seems holy to you. On one of my last days in Dharamsala, I attended Friday night services at the local synagogue. Standing outside, under the cover of a tarpaulin roof, rows of men in yarmulkes and women in traditional long Indian skirts rocked back and forth as they chanted joyous hymns welcoming the Jewish Sabbath.Later, after services, we all walked upstairs to a communal room, where we sat in rows on the floor, breaking off tiny pieces of challah and dipping them into communal bowls of hummus and salad. Across from me, a young Israeli traveler eagerly tore into his bread. “I just got out of the army — I’ve been here a few weeks,” he said. “I could stay here for months. I don’t even need to do anything here. Just be here.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)