BELIEVING IN THE POWER OF FAITH TOURISM
Experts to address Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx) meeting in Puerto Rico next month
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NEW YORK (April 10, 2008) – The faith tourism market is big business and one in which the Caribbean should be making greater inroads.Speaking ahead of Counterpart International's 12th Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx) – to be held on the island of Puerto Rico from May 15 to 19, 2008 – former CNN News Anchor Andria Hall, a Christian author and producer of women's conferences in the Caribbean, said "whether its conferences, crusades, retreats or a girlfriend's getaway, a strong faith tourism strategy is both urgent and prudent for the Caribbean region at such a time as this.
"The radio and television personality, who is the author of "The Walk at Work: Seven Steps to Spiritual Success on the Job," congratulated the Jamaican government for its recent plans to position the island as a faith tourism destination, a move which she believes will bless the nation abundantly.
The religious tourism and hospitality market has an estimated value of US$18 billion and includes 300 million annual travelers. "We are beginning to understand the dynamics of that marketplace and the power of religious tourism across the globe. (It) is a huge market sector that remains essentially untapped by Jamaica," said Jamaica's Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett who recently disclosed that a new 5,000 capacity convention is expected to be unveiled in 2009 large enough to facilitate conventions hosted by faith-based groups.
In addition to Andria Hall, CMEx will hear from Kevin Wright, Founder and President of the World Religious Travel Association and an award-winning author of four faith-based travel guidebooks, including "The Christian Traveler Planner". "Faith tourism is considered one of the fastest growing segments of world tourism today and has grown beyond just a niche market – today it is a multi billion dollar industry that comprises its own niches, such as conventions and meetings, leisure vacations, pilgrimage travel, cruising and retreats," said Wright.
Both Hall and Wright concur that the market is no longer dominated by 55 years olds, and now appeals to people of all ages – including young professionals and baby boomers as well as travelers seeking high end products and services. "We need to seriously take a look at the girlfriend getaway market – women of faith are constantly looking to get away together and get alone with God," said Hall, who has organized similar getaways in the Bahamas, Jamaica and St. Lucia.
A recent survey on women travelers in the United States shows that girlfriend getaways are becoming more popular as women escape their personal and professional lives for stress relieving sojourns – or what others describe as "spiritual centering".
Also confirmed for the conference is former National Football League (NFL) player Miles McPherson, the President of Miles Ahead, and Senior Pastor of the Rock Church in San Diego, California. Pastor McPherson's bold, down-to-earth and humorous style has become his trademark. His father is from Jamaica and he is the author of several books and articles.
At CMEx in San Juan, reporters, editors, young people, and marketing and development specialists will interact over four days with representatives of the hospitality sector, civil society and government to explore the theme "Embracing the Diaspora, Connecting Communities." Key is examining how tourism, including the faith tourism market, can improve the health, wealth, environment and culture of destinations.
The upcoming CMEx meeting, produced by Counterpart International and hosted by the Puerto Rico Tourism Company, is supported by Almond Resorts, American Eagle/Executive Airlines, Association of Caribbean Media Workers, The Barbara Pyle Foundation, Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Bay Gardens Resorts, Bermuda Department of Tourism, Black Entertainment Television (BET J), Caribbean Broadcasting Union, Caribbean Tourism Development Company (CTDC), Caribbean World News Network, Choice Hotels International, Coco Resorts, Counterpart Caribbean, Harry Edwards Jewellers, Jamaica Tourist Board, Mayberry Investments Ltd., Ruder Finn, SpeakEasy M.E.D.I.A., Spirit Airlines and the St. Lucia Tourist Board.
April 11, 2008
April 6, 2008
Preaching to the Devoted - Destinatiosn of the World News
Preaching to the Devoted - Destinations of the World News
April 2008
By Leah Larkin
Website link: Preaching to the devoted
Increasing numbers of countries are devoting more attention to faith-based travellers with tourism boards taking a long-term view to establish and develop their brand within this lucrative segment.
Jordan is a case in point. Christine Moore of Epiphany Media in Texas is a consultant for the Jordan Tourist Board who was hired in 2000 to represent the religious market. The country recognises the potential of this market in North America, she says. Travellers want to do more than just visit holy sites.
“Jordan is uniquely capable of meeting all the needs of the 21st century traveller offering a holistic religious travel experience,” she says. In addition to visiting holy sites, travellers can go to Petra, ride a camel, drive a jeep, and go to the Dead Sea for a spa experience. “Its a one-stop destination.” Last year tourism from North and South America increased more than five per cent, with religious sites seeing “huge increases”.
Switzerland is another example of a country responding to the clout of the religious holidaymaker. Eighteen months ago, Mirko Capodanno, trade manager of central USA and Canada for Switzerland Tourism, started a project to cater to this market segment. “I wanted to do something for this special interest group,” he says. “There is a lot of religious history in Switzerland.” He has been promoting Reformation sites in the country associated with the movement’s leaders John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli. Many religions popular in the US, such as Baptist, Mennonite and Amish, have origins in Switzerland. Capodanno aims to promote the country to the religious market and specific tour group leaders.
The Bahamas has both a dedicated religious travel department and director. Calling itself a “God-centred country”, it has been entertaining religious travellers for years by inviting pastors to speak to congregations as well as hosting religious meetings. Linville Johnson, deputy director of the religious market for the country's ministry of tourism, said eight years ago they began inviting pastors to bring their congregations to the islands.
Although no statistics are available, religious travel appears to be increasing. “Hotels tell us they have more business from religious groups,” Johnson says. The country even has a religious travel website http://www.worship.bahamas.com/
It may not have a religious travel department, but Northern Ireland is cashing in on St Patrick. As the country has become increasingly attractive to travellers, there’s been new interest in its patron saint who is venerated around the world. A US$12 million Saint Patrick Centre opened in 2001. It is described as “the only permanent exhibition in the world about Patrick which has fast become an essential stop for tourists who are coming to discover the northern part of the island”.
The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from Germany as the new pope (Pope Benedict XVI) is reviving interest in that country as a religious destination. There is now a Pope Benedict route in Bavaria to places associated with the leader. Victoria Larson, the country’s tourist office PR manager in New York, said the cathedral in Cologne is the most visited tourist site in the country. Luther sites in Thuringia and Saxony are also popular, as well as developments with Judaism, such as new synagogues in Munich and Berlin and Jewish museums in both cities. “I sense a resurgence of interest in Judaism in Germany,” she says.
Sharmila Singh, owner of the Indian travel agency, Travel India, says recent years have seen a boom in religious travel to holy sites in the country, be they Hindu, Buddhist or Christian. “The government has woken up to promote tourism,” she says, mentioning development at religious sites to make them more accessible to travellers. In some cases, helicopters now whisk passengers to destinations such as the Hindu site Vaishno Devi, previously reachable only via a 14-kilometre uphill trek. The site has a helipad and trains now make Buddhist sites easy to reach. “With tourism growing lots of hotels are being developed,” she says.
Bulgaria is promoting monastery tours, Turkey its mosques and churches. Minivans now shuttle tourists to churches and sacred tombs in the hinterlands of Ethiopia. Toronto boasts that it is a multi-faith city with religious attractions for all faiths. Japan publicises its 88 temples pilgrimage. Arizona encourages travel to the Canyon de Chelly National Monument, sacred Navaho ground where religious groups meditate and seek inspiration. The list is endless.
Added to that list are new attractions for the religious, including theme parks in both Argentina and Florida. Catechism meets adventure at Tierra Santa (Holy Land) in Buenos Aires where visitors can climb a version of Mt Calvary. Called the “Disney of religion,” it features mechanical figures playing out scenes such as the Last Supper.
“At Holy Land Experience in Orlando Jesus Christ is crucified and resurrected six days a week,” notes Associated Press. This Christian theme park terms itself a “living Biblical museum” and has a scale model of Jerusalem, an exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls and a model of the garden tomb where Christ was supposedly buried.
Meanwhile, between 1,500 and 4,000 visitors stand in line for as long as an hour each day to enter Kentucky’s new US$27 million Creation Museum where animatronic exhibits present the Bible’s creation story as fact. Attendance at the controversial museum, which has attracted visitors from France, Brazil, Japan and Hong Kong, in addition to America, has surpassed expectations.
Mansfield, Ohio, boasts that it has the only Biblical wax museum in the US. “Visitors come from all over the world,” says Julie Hardin, the director of the museum called Biblewalk. “Some don’t speak English and we don’t have an interpreter. They still come out with tears in their eyes because of what they’ve seen and the love of God in this building.”
To date, there has been no international exhibition bringing together those involved in the expanding religious travel market. That will change in autumn thanks to the World Religious Travel Association which will sponsor the first annual World Religious Travel Expo and Education Conference from October 29 in Orlando.
“All segments will be represented including pilgrimage, cruising, missions, attractions, conferences, retreats, camps and volunteer vacations,” says Wright, the organisation’s director. As Brodhecker of MTS Travel says, “Today faith-based travel is no longer targeted at a niche. It’s for the mainstream customer who wants a vacation that makes religion come alive.”
April 2008
By Leah Larkin
Website link: Preaching to the devoted
Increasing numbers of countries are devoting more attention to faith-based travellers with tourism boards taking a long-term view to establish and develop their brand within this lucrative segment.
Jordan is a case in point. Christine Moore of Epiphany Media in Texas is a consultant for the Jordan Tourist Board who was hired in 2000 to represent the religious market. The country recognises the potential of this market in North America, she says. Travellers want to do more than just visit holy sites.
“Jordan is uniquely capable of meeting all the needs of the 21st century traveller offering a holistic religious travel experience,” she says. In addition to visiting holy sites, travellers can go to Petra, ride a camel, drive a jeep, and go to the Dead Sea for a spa experience. “Its a one-stop destination.” Last year tourism from North and South America increased more than five per cent, with religious sites seeing “huge increases”.
Switzerland is another example of a country responding to the clout of the religious holidaymaker. Eighteen months ago, Mirko Capodanno, trade manager of central USA and Canada for Switzerland Tourism, started a project to cater to this market segment. “I wanted to do something for this special interest group,” he says. “There is a lot of religious history in Switzerland.” He has been promoting Reformation sites in the country associated with the movement’s leaders John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli. Many religions popular in the US, such as Baptist, Mennonite and Amish, have origins in Switzerland. Capodanno aims to promote the country to the religious market and specific tour group leaders.
The Bahamas has both a dedicated religious travel department and director. Calling itself a “God-centred country”, it has been entertaining religious travellers for years by inviting pastors to speak to congregations as well as hosting religious meetings. Linville Johnson, deputy director of the religious market for the country's ministry of tourism, said eight years ago they began inviting pastors to bring their congregations to the islands.
Although no statistics are available, religious travel appears to be increasing. “Hotels tell us they have more business from religious groups,” Johnson says. The country even has a religious travel website http://www.worship.bahamas.com/
It may not have a religious travel department, but Northern Ireland is cashing in on St Patrick. As the country has become increasingly attractive to travellers, there’s been new interest in its patron saint who is venerated around the world. A US$12 million Saint Patrick Centre opened in 2001. It is described as “the only permanent exhibition in the world about Patrick which has fast become an essential stop for tourists who are coming to discover the northern part of the island”.
The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from Germany as the new pope (Pope Benedict XVI) is reviving interest in that country as a religious destination. There is now a Pope Benedict route in Bavaria to places associated with the leader. Victoria Larson, the country’s tourist office PR manager in New York, said the cathedral in Cologne is the most visited tourist site in the country. Luther sites in Thuringia and Saxony are also popular, as well as developments with Judaism, such as new synagogues in Munich and Berlin and Jewish museums in both cities. “I sense a resurgence of interest in Judaism in Germany,” she says.
Sharmila Singh, owner of the Indian travel agency, Travel India, says recent years have seen a boom in religious travel to holy sites in the country, be they Hindu, Buddhist or Christian. “The government has woken up to promote tourism,” she says, mentioning development at religious sites to make them more accessible to travellers. In some cases, helicopters now whisk passengers to destinations such as the Hindu site Vaishno Devi, previously reachable only via a 14-kilometre uphill trek. The site has a helipad and trains now make Buddhist sites easy to reach. “With tourism growing lots of hotels are being developed,” she says.
Bulgaria is promoting monastery tours, Turkey its mosques and churches. Minivans now shuttle tourists to churches and sacred tombs in the hinterlands of Ethiopia. Toronto boasts that it is a multi-faith city with religious attractions for all faiths. Japan publicises its 88 temples pilgrimage. Arizona encourages travel to the Canyon de Chelly National Monument, sacred Navaho ground where religious groups meditate and seek inspiration. The list is endless.
Added to that list are new attractions for the religious, including theme parks in both Argentina and Florida. Catechism meets adventure at Tierra Santa (Holy Land) in Buenos Aires where visitors can climb a version of Mt Calvary. Called the “Disney of religion,” it features mechanical figures playing out scenes such as the Last Supper.
“At Holy Land Experience in Orlando Jesus Christ is crucified and resurrected six days a week,” notes Associated Press. This Christian theme park terms itself a “living Biblical museum” and has a scale model of Jerusalem, an exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls and a model of the garden tomb where Christ was supposedly buried.
Meanwhile, between 1,500 and 4,000 visitors stand in line for as long as an hour each day to enter Kentucky’s new US$27 million Creation Museum where animatronic exhibits present the Bible’s creation story as fact. Attendance at the controversial museum, which has attracted visitors from France, Brazil, Japan and Hong Kong, in addition to America, has surpassed expectations.
Mansfield, Ohio, boasts that it has the only Biblical wax museum in the US. “Visitors come from all over the world,” says Julie Hardin, the director of the museum called Biblewalk. “Some don’t speak English and we don’t have an interpreter. They still come out with tears in their eyes because of what they’ve seen and the love of God in this building.”
To date, there has been no international exhibition bringing together those involved in the expanding religious travel market. That will change in autumn thanks to the World Religious Travel Association which will sponsor the first annual World Religious Travel Expo and Education Conference from October 29 in Orlando.
“All segments will be represented including pilgrimage, cruising, missions, attractions, conferences, retreats, camps and volunteer vacations,” says Wright, the organisation’s director. As Brodhecker of MTS Travel says, “Today faith-based travel is no longer targeted at a niche. It’s for the mainstream customer who wants a vacation that makes religion come alive.”
In Praise of Luxury - Destinations of the World News
In Praise of Luxury - Destinations of the World News
April 2008
by Leah Larkin
Website link: In praise of luxury
“There’s been an absolute shift from budget class mentality to first class when it comes to spiritual holidays,” says Kevin Wright, founder and president of the World Religious Travel Association. The majority of religious travellers request first-class hotels for “security, comfort and health reasons.”
Bob Whitley, president of the United States Tour Operators Association, says: “Americans like comfort. They are demanding more luxury. They are more sophisticated.”Marzia Bortolin with the Italian Government Tourist Board adds that in Italy five-star hotels are doing big business. “Many monasteries have been turned into luxurious places to stay,” she says.
Dr Riaz Akhtar, meanwhile, a Chicago heart specialist, leads several groups of 200 to 250 for Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia every year. They always stay in five-star hotels.
The most notable example of high-end faith travel is a US$45,000 around-the-world tour called Great Faiths operated by TCS Expeditions. Tourists take in religious sites around the world, hopping around in private jets and staying at the world’s finest hotels, from the King David in Jerusalem to the Oberoi in Delhi.
Religious cruises where comfort and luxury are important are also becoming more popular. “Religious cruises have been increasing in the past three to four years,” says Jack Anderson, vice president of marketing for the Carnival Corporation whose ships include those of Holland America, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Princess and Seabourn Cruise Lines. He said the company works with travel agencies specialising in religious travel and encourages them to send groups on board. “We get hundreds of religious groups per year. We go everywhere, Alaska, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean.”
In some cases, an entire ship is chartered for a religious cruise. “We are seeing off-the-chart interest in full chartered ship cruises with Christian music artists, speakers and comedians during which the bars and casinos are closed,” says Honnie Korngold, founder of the California-based Christian Travel. A big hit is Cruise with a Cause – a Christian cruise to the Bahamas with Royal Caribbean featuring Christian pop stars and opportunities to do mission work on shore.
As faith based travel has evolved, spiritual healing is often accompanied with physical healing. Religious trips incorporate hiking, skiing, kayaking, and other activities. Windfall Outdoor Center in Maine organises a white-water rafting excursion that includes lunch and devotionals around a campfire. Good old fashioned fun can also be part of a trip, such as touring the missions of California with a stop for a wine reception.
Nathan Ward is jumping on the religious market bandwagon with his new company, Ice Mountain Adventures, which will include pilgrimages. “Religious tours are a way to explore our inner selves and those of the people we meet,” he says. First on the agenda is a Buddhist cultural tour to Bhutan. “Anyone interested in learning basic Buddhist philosophy should visit some of the monasteries as well as participate in rituals of religion,” he says.
Yet the bread and butter of the spiritual travel market continues to be the Holy Land and Rome. Israel reported 2.3 million arrivals in 2007, a 25 per cent increase over the previous year. Gail Barzilay of the tourist office in New York, says the country’s US$11 million publicity campaign had played a major role in boosting numbers. To handle increasing demand Delta inaugurated daily flights from Atlanta and New York to Tel Aviv.
In 2006, religious tourists generated US$2.72 billion in revenue for Italy, says Marzia Bortolin of the country’s tourist board. Italy has 30,000 basilicas, 700 religious museums and 220 monasteries, sanctuaries and convents. The most popular sites are Rome, Assisi and the shrine of Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo. The latter is the second-most visited Catholic shrine in the world after Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The shrine focuses on the tomb of Saint Padre Pio, a Capuchin friar known for his devotion to God and the stigmata. He died in 1968 and was declared a saint in 2002. Seven million pilgrims visit the site annually. Since Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ pilgrimages to Matera in southern Italy where the movie was filmed have also been on the upswing, Bortolin says.
Other European shrines attracting great numbers are Fatima and Lourdes. Franck Delahaye, director of communications at Lourdes, said the site had six million visitors in 2007, but eight million are expected this year, the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin that are said to have taken place at the site. With 200 hotels, he says: “Lourdes is the second city for hotels in France after Paris.” Visitors are not all Catholics, he says.
Overnight stays at Fatima in Portugal, a site where the Virgin appeared to three shepherds, grew from 363,296 in 2002 to 432,362 in 2006. That same year, 3.5 million masses were held in the sanctuary. “Its fame has spread, especially during the papacy of John Paul II who was a devout worshipper of Our Lady of Fatima,” says Miguel Carvalho of the National Tourism Office.
Medjugorje has been drawing greater numbers, now said to near a million per year. The Medjugorje Web, a US site with a travel department that conducts trips to the site in Bosnia and Herzegovina, lists 13 pilgrimages on its schedule this year.
April 2008
by Leah Larkin
Website link: In praise of luxury
“There’s been an absolute shift from budget class mentality to first class when it comes to spiritual holidays,” says Kevin Wright, founder and president of the World Religious Travel Association. The majority of religious travellers request first-class hotels for “security, comfort and health reasons.”
Bob Whitley, president of the United States Tour Operators Association, says: “Americans like comfort. They are demanding more luxury. They are more sophisticated.”Marzia Bortolin with the Italian Government Tourist Board adds that in Italy five-star hotels are doing big business. “Many monasteries have been turned into luxurious places to stay,” she says.
Dr Riaz Akhtar, meanwhile, a Chicago heart specialist, leads several groups of 200 to 250 for Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia every year. They always stay in five-star hotels.
The most notable example of high-end faith travel is a US$45,000 around-the-world tour called Great Faiths operated by TCS Expeditions. Tourists take in religious sites around the world, hopping around in private jets and staying at the world’s finest hotels, from the King David in Jerusalem to the Oberoi in Delhi.
Religious cruises where comfort and luxury are important are also becoming more popular. “Religious cruises have been increasing in the past three to four years,” says Jack Anderson, vice president of marketing for the Carnival Corporation whose ships include those of Holland America, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Princess and Seabourn Cruise Lines. He said the company works with travel agencies specialising in religious travel and encourages them to send groups on board. “We get hundreds of religious groups per year. We go everywhere, Alaska, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean.”
In some cases, an entire ship is chartered for a religious cruise. “We are seeing off-the-chart interest in full chartered ship cruises with Christian music artists, speakers and comedians during which the bars and casinos are closed,” says Honnie Korngold, founder of the California-based Christian Travel. A big hit is Cruise with a Cause – a Christian cruise to the Bahamas with Royal Caribbean featuring Christian pop stars and opportunities to do mission work on shore.
As faith based travel has evolved, spiritual healing is often accompanied with physical healing. Religious trips incorporate hiking, skiing, kayaking, and other activities. Windfall Outdoor Center in Maine organises a white-water rafting excursion that includes lunch and devotionals around a campfire. Good old fashioned fun can also be part of a trip, such as touring the missions of California with a stop for a wine reception.
Nathan Ward is jumping on the religious market bandwagon with his new company, Ice Mountain Adventures, which will include pilgrimages. “Religious tours are a way to explore our inner selves and those of the people we meet,” he says. First on the agenda is a Buddhist cultural tour to Bhutan. “Anyone interested in learning basic Buddhist philosophy should visit some of the monasteries as well as participate in rituals of religion,” he says.
Yet the bread and butter of the spiritual travel market continues to be the Holy Land and Rome. Israel reported 2.3 million arrivals in 2007, a 25 per cent increase over the previous year. Gail Barzilay of the tourist office in New York, says the country’s US$11 million publicity campaign had played a major role in boosting numbers. To handle increasing demand Delta inaugurated daily flights from Atlanta and New York to Tel Aviv.
In 2006, religious tourists generated US$2.72 billion in revenue for Italy, says Marzia Bortolin of the country’s tourist board. Italy has 30,000 basilicas, 700 religious museums and 220 monasteries, sanctuaries and convents. The most popular sites are Rome, Assisi and the shrine of Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo. The latter is the second-most visited Catholic shrine in the world after Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. The shrine focuses on the tomb of Saint Padre Pio, a Capuchin friar known for his devotion to God and the stigmata. He died in 1968 and was declared a saint in 2002. Seven million pilgrims visit the site annually. Since Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ pilgrimages to Matera in southern Italy where the movie was filmed have also been on the upswing, Bortolin says.
Other European shrines attracting great numbers are Fatima and Lourdes. Franck Delahaye, director of communications at Lourdes, said the site had six million visitors in 2007, but eight million are expected this year, the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin that are said to have taken place at the site. With 200 hotels, he says: “Lourdes is the second city for hotels in France after Paris.” Visitors are not all Catholics, he says.
Overnight stays at Fatima in Portugal, a site where the Virgin appeared to three shepherds, grew from 363,296 in 2002 to 432,362 in 2006. That same year, 3.5 million masses were held in the sanctuary. “Its fame has spread, especially during the papacy of John Paul II who was a devout worshipper of Our Lady of Fatima,” says Miguel Carvalho of the National Tourism Office.
Medjugorje has been drawing greater numbers, now said to near a million per year. The Medjugorje Web, a US site with a travel department that conducts trips to the site in Bosnia and Herzegovina, lists 13 pilgrimages on its schedule this year.
Footsteps of Faith - Destinations of the World News
Destinations of the World News
April 2008
by Leah Larkin
Website link: Footsteps of faith
Don Ferris of Fairview Heights, Illinois, travelled to Nevers, France, to see Saint Bernadette in her glass coffin. “She was stunningly beautiful. You think the body must be wax. It was so awe-inspiring,” said the 62-year-old civil engineer.
John Kulton and his wife Mickey of Wadsworth, Ohio, joined a group on a trip to the holy site of Medjugorje in Bosnia Herzegovina where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared. “I saw crutches, walkers and wheelchairs left by people who struggled and in some cases were carried up Apparition Hill and were cured. I heard and saw enough to be convinced that even the most hardened sceptic should believe that God is intervening in that place,” said Kulton, 70.
Harold Cornelius, 55, of Bakersfield, California, accompanied 400 Christians on a Spirit Cruise from Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. “I felt more comfortable knowing that the people I was travelling with believe the same way I do,” he said.
There are 330 million religious travellers generating US$18 billion annually, with US$10 billion generated in the United States alone. More than 50,000 church travel programmes are sponsored nationwide in America, an increase of 20 per cent in the past five years. In 2006, the Travel Industry Association of America issued survey findings that revealed “25 per cent of travellers said they were interested in taking a spiritual vacation”. The survey said the appeal spans ages, with one-third of each age group (18-34 years old, 35-54 years old and 55+) expressing an interest in embarking on such a holiday.
The National Tour Association in the US says more than a third of its 600 members offer religious tours, up nine per cent from 2003. “Travel is often a barometer of social change,” says the organisation’s president Lisa Simon. “For example, we’ve seen an increase in family travel since September 11 and people have become more focused on matters of spirituality. People are travelling more in groups and visiting more religious destinations.”
Robert Lanquar, a tourism and environment expert who wrote the report following the United Nations Conference on Tourism, Religions and Dialogue of Cultures held in Spain recently said a study on the impact of religious tourism for the World Tourism Organisation found “that around 600 million trips are linked with religious tourism: pilgrimages, visits to sanctuaries, religious gatherings. We ask the national tourism administrations to put more emphasis on religious tourism statistics.” The conference in Spain was the first time the UNWTO met to “advance the importance of inter-religious dialogue as one of the major aims of tourism”.
National tourist boards are recognising the potential of religious travel and appointing officials – even departments – whose objective is to focus on the market. From the canyons of Arizona to the mountains of Bhutan, from Argentina to Ohio, more religious attractions are in the pipeline. Religious travellers follow in the footsteps of St Thomas in India, St Paul in Greece and Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI in Bavaria. On their knees, they climb the 28 marble steps of The Holy Stairs in Rome.
“Religious travel accounts for one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism market. It has grown from a niche market to a full-blown multi-billion dollar industry,” says Kevin Wright, a noted authority on religious travel who is the founder and president of the World Religious Travel Association.
The report on the UNWTO conference states that religious travel is becoming internationalised. “This kind of tourism was previously largely a domestic phenomenon,” the reports states. “But now it involves different nationalities and even – in certain destinations – different spiritualities and religions.”
Thanks to globalisation, lower transport costs, group rates and online information, destinations have become internationalised, with some destinations receiving more foreigners than nationals. Pilgrimages were found to be the most common form of religious and spiritual travel, but religious gatherings were also recognised as attracting hundreds of thousands of participants.
The “realisation of the potential of religious tourism is recent, as is its ‘launching into the market,” says the UNWTO report. In the United States, however, religious travel seems firmly entrenched already. In addition to an increase in religious cruises and trips to holy sites, more church groups are travelling together – not necessarily to religious destinations. “They just want to be together as a group. They even go on shopping trips,” said Matt Poe,of Package Travel Insider magazine.“There are 10 million more Christians in the US than there were a decade ago,” says Wright. “We’ve seen people finding new ways to get faith involved in their daily lives.” He mentions the growth in sales of religious books, movies and music in the past 20 years. “Travel is newer,” he says, but there is a mushrooming trend to integrate travel with faith.
Honnie Korngold, founder of the California-based Christian Travel Finder says: “We find that if Christians are given the opportunity to choose a cruise or other vacation that’s family-oriented and enriches faith, they’ll choose that alternative.”
Korngold expects an explosion in the next few years as more travel products come on the market from suppliers aimed at the religious market. “It makes good business sense for travel suppliers to develop and provide these products to the interest and values of the religious traveller,” she says.
“They realise how lucrative it is.” In the US much of the marketing of religious travel is directed at seniors and baby boomers. “They are thinking in a more spiritual way after 9/11 and what’s happened in the world,” says Poe. “Boomers don’t want to be told about faith, they want to experience it for themselves,” Cindi Brodhecker of MTS Travel in Pennsylvania, which focuses on the religious non-profit market, told Time: “They want to explore where their ancestors might have worshipped or better understand their religious background.”
Marzia Bortolin with the Italian Government Tourist Board notes that as people get older they get closer to religion. “Religion is an alternative to the world situation,” she says. “People are grasping for something. They need spirituality.
April 2008
by Leah Larkin
Website link: Footsteps of faith
Don Ferris of Fairview Heights, Illinois, travelled to Nevers, France, to see Saint Bernadette in her glass coffin. “She was stunningly beautiful. You think the body must be wax. It was so awe-inspiring,” said the 62-year-old civil engineer.
John Kulton and his wife Mickey of Wadsworth, Ohio, joined a group on a trip to the holy site of Medjugorje in Bosnia Herzegovina where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared. “I saw crutches, walkers and wheelchairs left by people who struggled and in some cases were carried up Apparition Hill and were cured. I heard and saw enough to be convinced that even the most hardened sceptic should believe that God is intervening in that place,” said Kulton, 70.
Harold Cornelius, 55, of Bakersfield, California, accompanied 400 Christians on a Spirit Cruise from Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. “I felt more comfortable knowing that the people I was travelling with believe the same way I do,” he said.
There are 330 million religious travellers generating US$18 billion annually, with US$10 billion generated in the United States alone. More than 50,000 church travel programmes are sponsored nationwide in America, an increase of 20 per cent in the past five years. In 2006, the Travel Industry Association of America issued survey findings that revealed “25 per cent of travellers said they were interested in taking a spiritual vacation”. The survey said the appeal spans ages, with one-third of each age group (18-34 years old, 35-54 years old and 55+) expressing an interest in embarking on such a holiday.
The National Tour Association in the US says more than a third of its 600 members offer religious tours, up nine per cent from 2003. “Travel is often a barometer of social change,” says the organisation’s president Lisa Simon. “For example, we’ve seen an increase in family travel since September 11 and people have become more focused on matters of spirituality. People are travelling more in groups and visiting more religious destinations.”
Robert Lanquar, a tourism and environment expert who wrote the report following the United Nations Conference on Tourism, Religions and Dialogue of Cultures held in Spain recently said a study on the impact of religious tourism for the World Tourism Organisation found “that around 600 million trips are linked with religious tourism: pilgrimages, visits to sanctuaries, religious gatherings. We ask the national tourism administrations to put more emphasis on religious tourism statistics.” The conference in Spain was the first time the UNWTO met to “advance the importance of inter-religious dialogue as one of the major aims of tourism”.
National tourist boards are recognising the potential of religious travel and appointing officials – even departments – whose objective is to focus on the market. From the canyons of Arizona to the mountains of Bhutan, from Argentina to Ohio, more religious attractions are in the pipeline. Religious travellers follow in the footsteps of St Thomas in India, St Paul in Greece and Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI in Bavaria. On their knees, they climb the 28 marble steps of The Holy Stairs in Rome.
“Religious travel accounts for one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism market. It has grown from a niche market to a full-blown multi-billion dollar industry,” says Kevin Wright, a noted authority on religious travel who is the founder and president of the World Religious Travel Association.
The report on the UNWTO conference states that religious travel is becoming internationalised. “This kind of tourism was previously largely a domestic phenomenon,” the reports states. “But now it involves different nationalities and even – in certain destinations – different spiritualities and religions.”
Thanks to globalisation, lower transport costs, group rates and online information, destinations have become internationalised, with some destinations receiving more foreigners than nationals. Pilgrimages were found to be the most common form of religious and spiritual travel, but religious gatherings were also recognised as attracting hundreds of thousands of participants.
The “realisation of the potential of religious tourism is recent, as is its ‘launching into the market,” says the UNWTO report. In the United States, however, religious travel seems firmly entrenched already. In addition to an increase in religious cruises and trips to holy sites, more church groups are travelling together – not necessarily to religious destinations. “They just want to be together as a group. They even go on shopping trips,” said Matt Poe,of Package Travel Insider magazine.“There are 10 million more Christians in the US than there were a decade ago,” says Wright. “We’ve seen people finding new ways to get faith involved in their daily lives.” He mentions the growth in sales of religious books, movies and music in the past 20 years. “Travel is newer,” he says, but there is a mushrooming trend to integrate travel with faith.
Honnie Korngold, founder of the California-based Christian Travel Finder says: “We find that if Christians are given the opportunity to choose a cruise or other vacation that’s family-oriented and enriches faith, they’ll choose that alternative.”
Korngold expects an explosion in the next few years as more travel products come on the market from suppliers aimed at the religious market. “It makes good business sense for travel suppliers to develop and provide these products to the interest and values of the religious traveller,” she says.
“They realise how lucrative it is.” In the US much of the marketing of religious travel is directed at seniors and baby boomers. “They are thinking in a more spiritual way after 9/11 and what’s happened in the world,” says Poe. “Boomers don’t want to be told about faith, they want to experience it for themselves,” Cindi Brodhecker of MTS Travel in Pennsylvania, which focuses on the religious non-profit market, told Time: “They want to explore where their ancestors might have worshipped or better understand their religious background.”
Marzia Bortolin with the Italian Government Tourist Board notes that as people get older they get closer to religion. “Religion is an alternative to the world situation,” she says. “People are grasping for something. They need spirituality.
Religious Travel Cover Story - Destinations of the World News
Destinations of the World News
Cover Story - Religious Travel
By Leah Larkin
April 2008
Website link: http://www.dotwnews.com/TheMagazine/April08Edition/tabid/187/Default.aspx
More and more tourists are following in the footsteps of the faithful. Leah Larkin pays homage to the global impact of the travel trade’s increasingly spiritual dimension.
Faith tourism is growing dramatically with more people than ever before travelling for spiritual enlightenment. Whether it is in search for a deeper meaning in life or connecting with their roots, there are said to be 330 million religious travellers generating US$18 billion annually with roughly US$10 billion in the United States alone. A survey by the Travel Industry Association of America in 2006 revealed that approximately one third in each age group (18-34 years, 35-54 years and 55+) were interested in a spiritual holiday. The American National Tour Association says more than 200 of its 600 members offer religious tours, up nine per cent from 2003.
The trend is now strong enough for many countries to start focusing on faith travel as part of their national strategy and for hotel companies to develop new properties in significant faith centres. And the message is global.
At the United Nations World Travel Organisation (UNWTO) meeting in Cordoba, tourism organisations were urged to “advance the importance of inter-religious dialogue as one of the major aims of tourism”.
Cover Story - Religious Travel
By Leah Larkin
April 2008
Website link: http://www.dotwnews.com/TheMagazine/April08Edition/tabid/187/Default.aspx
More and more tourists are following in the footsteps of the faithful. Leah Larkin pays homage to the global impact of the travel trade’s increasingly spiritual dimension.
Faith tourism is growing dramatically with more people than ever before travelling for spiritual enlightenment. Whether it is in search for a deeper meaning in life or connecting with their roots, there are said to be 330 million religious travellers generating US$18 billion annually with roughly US$10 billion in the United States alone. A survey by the Travel Industry Association of America in 2006 revealed that approximately one third in each age group (18-34 years, 35-54 years and 55+) were interested in a spiritual holiday. The American National Tour Association says more than 200 of its 600 members offer religious tours, up nine per cent from 2003.
The trend is now strong enough for many countries to start focusing on faith travel as part of their national strategy and for hotel companies to develop new properties in significant faith centres. And the message is global.
At the United Nations World Travel Organisation (UNWTO) meeting in Cordoba, tourism organisations were urged to “advance the importance of inter-religious dialogue as one of the major aims of tourism”.
April 5, 2008
New Florida (Catholic) town drawing tourists
The new Florida (Catholic) town of Ave Maria is becoming a tourist destination and drawing visitors from not only Florida, but throughout the U.S. and even globally. To read more about the story, see the Naples Daily News story below.
Ave Maria drawing flocks of tourists
Town’s newly dedicated oratory brings in visitors
By LIAM DILLON (Friday, April 4, 2008 )
They come from places like Batavia, Ill.; Jim Thorpe, Pa.; and Sligo, Ireland, with cameras banded around their necks and mouths agape.
Tourists from all around the world are trekking the 35 miles from downtown Naples to the hinterlands of eastern Collier County on a journey to see a 100-foot-tall church, a new university and the early results of pizza-man Tom Monaghan’s dream.
By doing so, they’re becoming part of the 600 million people worldwide who take religious tourism trips each year, according to statistics from the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
“It’s definitely an attraction at this point,” said Tony Almeida, the public relations director for the local concierge association.
Ave Maria, religious travel experts said, could become a type of hybrid destination in religious travel terms, combining elements of both pilgrimage (think Lourdes, France) and tourist attraction (think Orlando-based biblical theme park Holy Land Experience).
Similar pilgrimage-attraction hybrids exist in towns such as Eureka Springs, Ark., and Lancaster, Pa., but neither of them is a Catholic destination.
“It is possibly the only Catholic place that offers this particular type of atmosphere and attraction,” said Kevin J. Wright, president of the Colorado-based World Religious Travel Association and author of The Christian Travel Planner.
Right now, the pendulum is swinging more to the side of attraction than pilgrimage, where a holy site’s religious meaning takes precedence, Wright said.
Ave Maria University doesn’t keep statistics on tourists who visit the town, but numbers could well be in the high hundreds each day, according to Jack Rook, the university’s hospitality and tour coordinator. Rook said the university offers narrated tours six times a day, with an average of 30 to 40 people on each tour. That figure, Rook said, represents a small percentage of the visitors. By late afternoon on a recent weekday, 83 lines of the guestbook in the town’s church — known as Ave Maria Oratory — were filled, with many of the lines listing more than one tourist.
The majority of the visitors, townspeople said, are day-trippers from other spots in Southwest Florida, but they originate from across the world.
Jeanne Rush, owner of the town’s women’s clothing boutique, said a co-worker took a look at her mailing list and said, “It looks like the United Nations.”
Stepping out of the church on an afternoon this week, people list various reasons for coming to Ave Maria.
They’re drawn by the idea.
“We’re not Catholic, we’re Protestant, but we think this Monaghan knows what to do with his money,” said Ed Penner, 76, visiting with his wife from Fort Myers and son and daughter-in-law from Manitoba, Canada.
They’re drawn by the design.
“It’s like a little Italy,” said Maggie DeLellis, 71, visiting with her husband from Cape Coral and sister from Hungary.
They’re drawn by proximity to other attractions.
“We went to the casino,” laughed Kathy Smith, 65, a snowbird from New York visiting with 11 others, referring to the Immokalee gambling spot seven miles away. “We’ve been wanting to see this for so long, and the driver was willing to stop.”
And some are drawn by, yes, spirituality.
“I will return to this beautiful place so that God and I can find each other again,” wrote a visitor from Naples in the oratory’s guest book.
All the motivations are familiar to Tom Bremer, an associate professor of religious studies at Rhodes College in Tennessee, who has written extensively about religious tourism. He calls the different ways people react to religious sites such as Ave Maria, the “simultaneity of places.”
People visit Ave Maria with a religious intent or for sightseeing and shopping but likely have some mixture of the two or even the opposite of what they had intended.
“There are people that go there for a specific religious purpose and then wind up having more of a tourist experience,” Bremer said.
Catholics, Bremer said, likely have different reactions to Ave Maria than people of other faiths. Elements of nostalgia and curiosity are also at play.
“A lot of reasons why people visit any destination, in the vernacular of the day, is just ‘buzz,’ ” he said.
Any of Ave Maria’s “buzz” would come from the celebrity of Monaghan, the ambition of the project and the national media attention the town received. And even though much has been spent to market Ave Maria, little is specifically dedicated to tourism. The developer’s play for tourism dollars so far is limited to placing advertisements in Southwest Florida hotel guidebooks and making sure Ave Maria is labeled on Naples-area maps.
Local tourism officials said it was too soon to know what impact the town, which opened in July, would have on tourism.
“From our perspective, we really have not seen much impact to date,” said Jack Wert, executive director of the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s a little too early to tell at this point if the university or the church and sanctuary are going to have some appeal to people traveling in the area.”
What could impact that appeal was the dedication this week of the town’s 100-foot-tall structure as a Roman Catholic church. Religious tourism experts said the dedication would not mean much to casual visitors to the town but could eventually lead to stronger religious encounters.
“If they go to the campus and the building and they have these powerful religious experiences and the word spreads, I can see this as being a popular destination for religious tourists,” Bremer said. “If they’re not having these experiences, (the church) would likely just be another pretty building in the Florida landscape. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.”
Ave Maria drawing flocks of tourists
Town’s newly dedicated oratory brings in visitors
By LIAM DILLON (Friday, April 4, 2008 )
They come from places like Batavia, Ill.; Jim Thorpe, Pa.; and Sligo, Ireland, with cameras banded around their necks and mouths agape.
Tourists from all around the world are trekking the 35 miles from downtown Naples to the hinterlands of eastern Collier County on a journey to see a 100-foot-tall church, a new university and the early results of pizza-man Tom Monaghan’s dream.
By doing so, they’re becoming part of the 600 million people worldwide who take religious tourism trips each year, according to statistics from the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
“It’s definitely an attraction at this point,” said Tony Almeida, the public relations director for the local concierge association.
Ave Maria, religious travel experts said, could become a type of hybrid destination in religious travel terms, combining elements of both pilgrimage (think Lourdes, France) and tourist attraction (think Orlando-based biblical theme park Holy Land Experience).
Similar pilgrimage-attraction hybrids exist in towns such as Eureka Springs, Ark., and Lancaster, Pa., but neither of them is a Catholic destination.
“It is possibly the only Catholic place that offers this particular type of atmosphere and attraction,” said Kevin J. Wright, president of the Colorado-based World Religious Travel Association and author of The Christian Travel Planner.
Right now, the pendulum is swinging more to the side of attraction than pilgrimage, where a holy site’s religious meaning takes precedence, Wright said.
Ave Maria University doesn’t keep statistics on tourists who visit the town, but numbers could well be in the high hundreds each day, according to Jack Rook, the university’s hospitality and tour coordinator. Rook said the university offers narrated tours six times a day, with an average of 30 to 40 people on each tour. That figure, Rook said, represents a small percentage of the visitors. By late afternoon on a recent weekday, 83 lines of the guestbook in the town’s church — known as Ave Maria Oratory — were filled, with many of the lines listing more than one tourist.
The majority of the visitors, townspeople said, are day-trippers from other spots in Southwest Florida, but they originate from across the world.
Jeanne Rush, owner of the town’s women’s clothing boutique, said a co-worker took a look at her mailing list and said, “It looks like the United Nations.”
Stepping out of the church on an afternoon this week, people list various reasons for coming to Ave Maria.
They’re drawn by the idea.
“We’re not Catholic, we’re Protestant, but we think this Monaghan knows what to do with his money,” said Ed Penner, 76, visiting with his wife from Fort Myers and son and daughter-in-law from Manitoba, Canada.
They’re drawn by the design.
“It’s like a little Italy,” said Maggie DeLellis, 71, visiting with her husband from Cape Coral and sister from Hungary.
They’re drawn by proximity to other attractions.
“We went to the casino,” laughed Kathy Smith, 65, a snowbird from New York visiting with 11 others, referring to the Immokalee gambling spot seven miles away. “We’ve been wanting to see this for so long, and the driver was willing to stop.”
And some are drawn by, yes, spirituality.
“I will return to this beautiful place so that God and I can find each other again,” wrote a visitor from Naples in the oratory’s guest book.
All the motivations are familiar to Tom Bremer, an associate professor of religious studies at Rhodes College in Tennessee, who has written extensively about religious tourism. He calls the different ways people react to religious sites such as Ave Maria, the “simultaneity of places.”
People visit Ave Maria with a religious intent or for sightseeing and shopping but likely have some mixture of the two or even the opposite of what they had intended.
“There are people that go there for a specific religious purpose and then wind up having more of a tourist experience,” Bremer said.
Catholics, Bremer said, likely have different reactions to Ave Maria than people of other faiths. Elements of nostalgia and curiosity are also at play.
“A lot of reasons why people visit any destination, in the vernacular of the day, is just ‘buzz,’ ” he said.
Any of Ave Maria’s “buzz” would come from the celebrity of Monaghan, the ambition of the project and the national media attention the town received. And even though much has been spent to market Ave Maria, little is specifically dedicated to tourism. The developer’s play for tourism dollars so far is limited to placing advertisements in Southwest Florida hotel guidebooks and making sure Ave Maria is labeled on Naples-area maps.
Local tourism officials said it was too soon to know what impact the town, which opened in July, would have on tourism.
“From our perspective, we really have not seen much impact to date,” said Jack Wert, executive director of the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s a little too early to tell at this point if the university or the church and sanctuary are going to have some appeal to people traveling in the area.”
What could impact that appeal was the dedication this week of the town’s 100-foot-tall structure as a Roman Catholic church. Religious tourism experts said the dedication would not mean much to casual visitors to the town but could eventually lead to stronger religious encounters.
“If they go to the campus and the building and they have these powerful religious experiences and the word spreads, I can see this as being a popular destination for religious tourists,” Bremer said. “If they’re not having these experiences, (the church) would likely just be another pretty building in the Florida landscape. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.”
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