Religious travel keeping American travel to Europe strong

As reported by Travel Mole, Religious Travel is one of the driving forces behind American travel to Europe remaining strong.

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AMERICAN TRAVEL TO EUROPE STRONG WITH RELIGION LEADING THE WAY

With a late summer pickup in US travel to Europe, it appears totals will exceed the numbers of 2000 with religious travel among the most robust, according to a new survey.
Group travel was down but the latest government figures showed travel to Europe up in both August and September, with September showing the largest monthly increase of the year.
The report was made by Donald N. Martin & Company (DNM&C).
For individual countries, Britain (the No. 1 overseas source of visitors to the US) was up 22%; France, up 40.4%; Spain, up 31.6%; Italy, up 28.5%; Switzerland, up 13%; and Germany, up 8.8%.
Tour and package bookings to Europe are down in 2007, according to more than half of recently polled US tour operators selling Europe in results released at a recent tour operators meeting.
Religious travel, on the other hand, is robust, according to DNM&C. More than 4.5 million Americans report having taken a "faith-based vacation" abroad.
Another third of all US international travelers -- 15.7 million adults -- "are likely" to take a religious vacation in the future.
A study from Menlo Consulting for Globus found:
· Half of religious travelers are protestant;
· One quarter is Catholic;
· Two thirds are active in their churches, temples or synagogues;
· The leading destination was Israel.
Report by David Wilkening