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."
May 19, 2007
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.”
April 22, 2007
WRTA April Newsletter
The following is a sampling of the April newsletter for the World Religious Travel Association members. If you would like to be added to the free monthly newsletter, simly sign up for free membership at www.religioustravelassociation.com
Religious tourism in the news
Faith-based tourism continues to be a major topic in travel, religious, and secular news outlets. The Religion News Service carried the story of "Companies see increased interest in spiritual tours". The cover story of the entire Rocky Mountain News (Colorado's #1 newspaper) on Easter Weekend was about Christian tourism with its feature article "In the footsteps of the faithful"The story was then followed up with NBC affiliate 9News Even local newspapers are covering faith-based tourism, including Indiana's Bloomington The Pantagraph with its recent story of "Holy sites draw hundreds of tours, pilgrimages"
Faith-based cruising sails on
As recently reported in the Los Angeles Daily, church and religious groups embarking on cruises is at an all-time high. Many Christian and faith-based organizations are taking their retreats and Biblical seminars to the high seas of the Caribbean and Alaska, as well as down the waterways of Europe. Group sizes range from several-hundred to full-ship charters of several thousand. Some of the biggest Christian music groups, artists, speakers, and celebrities are joining these trips. Cruise lines, cruise agencies, and passengers were all interviewed in this excellent article. To learn more about today's world of faith-based cruising, you can read the full article athttp://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.vvtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailynews.com%2Fbusiness%2Fci_5514668
New study reveals religious meetings and events key to local economies
Communities that host church retreats and conventions can count their blessings and the dollars the faithful pump into local economies, a new University of Florida study finds. Learn more about the study by visiting http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.xvtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ufl.edu%2F2007%2F04%2F12%2Freligious-tourism
Subscribe or advertise in top religious travel magazines
If you're looking for a top faith-based travel publication to either subscribe to or advertise in, look no further. With the tremendous growth of religious tourism in the past five years, there are now three top faith-based and group magazines:
Christian Travel & Cruise Guide: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.6vtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.christiantravelandcruiseguide.com%2F
Group Leisure Travel: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.4vtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leisuregrouptravel.com%2F
Going on Faith: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.cwtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goingonfaith.com%2F
To learn more about substantial discounts you can receive when subscribing or advertising in the above publications (as a WRTA member), simply visit http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.dwtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.religioustravelassociation.com%2Fdirectory_publications.html.
Switzerland Tourism gears efforts towards faith-based community
Switzerland Tourism is the latest tourist board to gear its marketing efforts to the faith-based community. With its rich religious heritage, Switzerland is home to many sites related to the Protestant Reformation, Catholic faith, as well as the Amish and Mennonite faiths among others. In Geneva people can visit places related to John Calvin including St. Peter's Cathedral where he preached, as well as Reformation Monument and the new International Reformation Museum. For more information visit http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.bvtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myswitzerland.com%2F or http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.ewtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.religioustravelassociation.com%2Fdirectory_tourism_offices_worldwide.html
WRTA launches monthly awards program - and reveals first winners
And speaking of religious travel publications, in April WRTA debuted its new monthly magazine award program. Members are now eligible each month to win a subscription to one of the following top faith-based and group travel publications:
Going on Faith: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.cwtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goingonfaith.com%2F
Group Leisure Travel: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.4vtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leisuregrouptravel.com%2F
Christian Travel & Cruise Guide: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.6vtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.christiantravelandcruiseguide.com%2F
Do you know a church travel planner or religious travel group leader?
If the answer is yes - let them know they may be qualified to receive free membership within WRTA, as well as a free copy of the forthcoming book The Christian Travelers' Guide to Vacations, Cruises, Retreats & Much More (to be published by Thomas Nelson). To be eligible for the complimentary membership and book, simply have the church travel planner or religious travel group leader fill out the application on the homepage of http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.n474x6bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.religioustravelassociation.com%2F.
Submit your company news and announcements to WRTA
Remember that as a registered member you can submit your organization news, events and announcements to WRTA at any time. WRTA will in turn distribute your news information via its monthly newsletter, to media members, and/or post on the association website.
Forward this newsletter to your friends, family, pastor/religious leader, & church members
Members and non-members alike can receive this newsletter for free. Forward this email to your friends, family, pastor, religious leader and church members and travel planners. Also, let them know about the monthly magazine giveaway and free cruise drawing this fall!
Religious tourism in the news
Faith-based tourism continues to be a major topic in travel, religious, and secular news outlets. The Religion News Service carried the story of "Companies see increased interest in spiritual tours". The cover story of the entire Rocky Mountain News (Colorado's #1 newspaper) on Easter Weekend was about Christian tourism with its feature article "In the footsteps of the faithful"The story was then followed up with NBC affiliate 9News Even local newspapers are covering faith-based tourism, including Indiana's Bloomington The Pantagraph with its recent story of "Holy sites draw hundreds of tours, pilgrimages"
Faith-based cruising sails on
As recently reported in the Los Angeles Daily, church and religious groups embarking on cruises is at an all-time high. Many Christian and faith-based organizations are taking their retreats and Biblical seminars to the high seas of the Caribbean and Alaska, as well as down the waterways of Europe. Group sizes range from several-hundred to full-ship charters of several thousand. Some of the biggest Christian music groups, artists, speakers, and celebrities are joining these trips. Cruise lines, cruise agencies, and passengers were all interviewed in this excellent article. To learn more about today's world of faith-based cruising, you can read the full article athttp://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.vvtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailynews.com%2Fbusiness%2Fci_5514668
New study reveals religious meetings and events key to local economies
Communities that host church retreats and conventions can count their blessings and the dollars the faithful pump into local economies, a new University of Florida study finds. Learn more about the study by visiting http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.xvtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ufl.edu%2F2007%2F04%2F12%2Freligious-tourism
Subscribe or advertise in top religious travel magazines
If you're looking for a top faith-based travel publication to either subscribe to or advertise in, look no further. With the tremendous growth of religious tourism in the past five years, there are now three top faith-based and group magazines:
Christian Travel & Cruise Guide: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.6vtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.christiantravelandcruiseguide.com%2F
Group Leisure Travel: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.4vtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leisuregrouptravel.com%2F
Going on Faith: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.cwtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goingonfaith.com%2F
To learn more about substantial discounts you can receive when subscribing or advertising in the above publications (as a WRTA member), simply visit http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.dwtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.religioustravelassociation.com%2Fdirectory_publications.html.
Switzerland Tourism gears efforts towards faith-based community
Switzerland Tourism is the latest tourist board to gear its marketing efforts to the faith-based community. With its rich religious heritage, Switzerland is home to many sites related to the Protestant Reformation, Catholic faith, as well as the Amish and Mennonite faiths among others. In Geneva people can visit places related to John Calvin including St. Peter's Cathedral where he preached, as well as Reformation Monument and the new International Reformation Museum. For more information visit http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.bvtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myswitzerland.com%2F or http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.ewtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.religioustravelassociation.com%2Fdirectory_tourism_offices_worldwide.html
WRTA launches monthly awards program - and reveals first winners
And speaking of religious travel publications, in April WRTA debuted its new monthly magazine award program. Members are now eligible each month to win a subscription to one of the following top faith-based and group travel publications:
Going on Faith: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.cwtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.goingonfaith.com%2F
Group Leisure Travel: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.4vtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leisuregrouptravel.com%2F
Christian Travel & Cruise Guide: http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.6vtea4bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.christiantravelandcruiseguide.com%2F
Do you know a church travel planner or religious travel group leader?
If the answer is yes - let them know they may be qualified to receive free membership within WRTA, as well as a free copy of the forthcoming book The Christian Travelers' Guide to Vacations, Cruises, Retreats & Much More (to be published by Thomas Nelson). To be eligible for the complimentary membership and book, simply have the church travel planner or religious travel group leader fill out the application on the homepage of http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=zgus75bab.0.n474x6bab.qwhlt6bab.85&ts=S0242&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.religioustravelassociation.com%2F.
Submit your company news and announcements to WRTA
Remember that as a registered member you can submit your organization news, events and announcements to WRTA at any time. WRTA will in turn distribute your news information via its monthly newsletter, to media members, and/or post on the association website.
Forward this newsletter to your friends, family, pastor/religious leader, & church members
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April 16, 2007
Switzerland Tourism gearing efforts to Religious Market
The Switzerland Tourist Board is the latest in target its efforts to the faith-based community. Rich with Christian and Catholic heritage and sites, it is a very popular destination on many religious travel itineraries. It is home to sites related to John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, as well as the famed monastery at Einsiedeln.
To learn more visit http://www.religioustravelassociation.com/directory_tourism_offices_worldwide.html
To learn more visit http://www.religioustravelassociation.com/directory_tourism_offices_worldwide.html
April 14, 2007
Study shows religious tourism is boon to economies
Church events a growing boon to local economies, study finds
Website link: http://news.ufl.edu/2007/04/12/religious-tourism/
Filed under Research, Business, Religion, Black on Thursday, April 12, 2007.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Communities that host church retreats and conventions can count their blessings and the dollars the faithful pump into local economies, a new University of Florida study finds.
Pilgrimages, retreats and conventions are fast becoming one of the most reliable and desirable forms of income for the travel industry, said Harrison Pinckney IV. He did the study for his master’s thesis in UF’s department of tourism, recreation and sports management. Participants usually bring along their families and stretch their visits over three to four days, making a mini-vacation out of the affair by shopping, visiting museums and eating out, Pinckney said. He is now working on a doctoral degree in recreation, parks and tourism at Texas A&M University.
“There may be 80,000 people in town, but they’re not the kind to show up at bars and drive home drunk,” he said. “Because they have their kids with them they might go to a family restaurant or catch a movie afterwards.”
Another advantage of these religious gatherings is they are less likely to be canceled because many churches’ bylaws require congregations to hold annual conventions, Pinckney said. “After 9-11 there was a decline in attendance at professional conferences, but the numbers stayed steady for church conferences and in some cases even increased,” he said.
Although greater attendance at large church-oriented events is part of a broad social trend, Pinckney focused on black churches in his study. Historically, the church has assumed great importance to blacks because it was one of the few places in society that welcomed them, particularly before desegregation, when black-owned businesses were rare, he said.
“More than just a church, it became whatever the African-American community wanted it to be — a civic center, an after-school program and then a summer camp, even a homeless shelter,” he said.
Pinckney distributed questionnaires at seven Church of God by Faith congregations in Florida and Georgia during 2004. A total of 102 participants returned the surveys at the end of the church service or gave them to their pastors the following week.
Eighty-two percent reported having traveled to at least one Church of God by Faith national event. Sixty-one percent said they attended the four-day national convention for its entire length, while 26 percent said they were there for three days. The remaining 13 percent of churchgoers reported going for two days, with no one reporting a shorter visit.
While at the conventions, churchgoers reported sampling a variety of outside events such as sightseeing, shopping, visiting family or friends, and attending local performances or sporting events. The most popular activity was shopping– 30 percent reported heading for retail outlets –followed by visiting family and friends, 21 percent. Attending sports events was least popular, attracting only 5 percent.
Like major sporting events, church-oriented special events have been a financial boon to cities, with some attracting more than 80,000 visitors at a time and generating as much as $18 million for the local economy, Pinckney said. MegaFest, a religious event in Atlanta, draws about 150,000 a year, he said.
Lori Pennington-Gray, director for UF’s Center for Tourism Research and Development and a professor in UF’s tourism, recreation and sports management department who supervised Pinckney’s research, said the travel industry is recognizing the importance of such events by assembling more meeting planners specializing in this type of market, she said.
Because church-oriented special events operate on such a grand scale, they must usually be planned at least a couple of years in advance, Pennington-Gray said. “That makes them less vulnerable to fluctuations in the economy than segments of the leisure market where people’s discretionary income is affected if the economy takes a downturn,” she said.
DeWayne Woodring, executive director of the Religious Conference Management Association headquartered in Indianapolis, said a survey conducted by his organization shows that the number of religious meetings grew 195 percent in the past 10 years.
“Meetings are becoming more and more important because within this increasingly complex and global society, people feel a need to meet with others with whom they share a common faith, bond or purpose,” he said.
Credits Writer
Cathy Keen, ckeen@ufl.edu, 352-392-0186
Source Harrison Pinckney IV, hpinckney@neo.tamu.edu, 979-530-0253
Website link: http://news.ufl.edu/2007/04/12/religious-tourism/
Filed under Research, Business, Religion, Black on Thursday, April 12, 2007.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Communities that host church retreats and conventions can count their blessings and the dollars the faithful pump into local economies, a new University of Florida study finds.
Pilgrimages, retreats and conventions are fast becoming one of the most reliable and desirable forms of income for the travel industry, said Harrison Pinckney IV. He did the study for his master’s thesis in UF’s department of tourism, recreation and sports management. Participants usually bring along their families and stretch their visits over three to four days, making a mini-vacation out of the affair by shopping, visiting museums and eating out, Pinckney said. He is now working on a doctoral degree in recreation, parks and tourism at Texas A&M University.
“There may be 80,000 people in town, but they’re not the kind to show up at bars and drive home drunk,” he said. “Because they have their kids with them they might go to a family restaurant or catch a movie afterwards.”
Another advantage of these religious gatherings is they are less likely to be canceled because many churches’ bylaws require congregations to hold annual conventions, Pinckney said. “After 9-11 there was a decline in attendance at professional conferences, but the numbers stayed steady for church conferences and in some cases even increased,” he said.
Although greater attendance at large church-oriented events is part of a broad social trend, Pinckney focused on black churches in his study. Historically, the church has assumed great importance to blacks because it was one of the few places in society that welcomed them, particularly before desegregation, when black-owned businesses were rare, he said.
“More than just a church, it became whatever the African-American community wanted it to be — a civic center, an after-school program and then a summer camp, even a homeless shelter,” he said.
Pinckney distributed questionnaires at seven Church of God by Faith congregations in Florida and Georgia during 2004. A total of 102 participants returned the surveys at the end of the church service or gave them to their pastors the following week.
Eighty-two percent reported having traveled to at least one Church of God by Faith national event. Sixty-one percent said they attended the four-day national convention for its entire length, while 26 percent said they were there for three days. The remaining 13 percent of churchgoers reported going for two days, with no one reporting a shorter visit.
While at the conventions, churchgoers reported sampling a variety of outside events such as sightseeing, shopping, visiting family or friends, and attending local performances or sporting events. The most popular activity was shopping– 30 percent reported heading for retail outlets –followed by visiting family and friends, 21 percent. Attending sports events was least popular, attracting only 5 percent.
Like major sporting events, church-oriented special events have been a financial boon to cities, with some attracting more than 80,000 visitors at a time and generating as much as $18 million for the local economy, Pinckney said. MegaFest, a religious event in Atlanta, draws about 150,000 a year, he said.
Lori Pennington-Gray, director for UF’s Center for Tourism Research and Development and a professor in UF’s tourism, recreation and sports management department who supervised Pinckney’s research, said the travel industry is recognizing the importance of such events by assembling more meeting planners specializing in this type of market, she said.
Because church-oriented special events operate on such a grand scale, they must usually be planned at least a couple of years in advance, Pennington-Gray said. “That makes them less vulnerable to fluctuations in the economy than segments of the leisure market where people’s discretionary income is affected if the economy takes a downturn,” she said.
DeWayne Woodring, executive director of the Religious Conference Management Association headquartered in Indianapolis, said a survey conducted by his organization shows that the number of religious meetings grew 195 percent in the past 10 years.
“Meetings are becoming more and more important because within this increasingly complex and global society, people feel a need to meet with others with whom they share a common faith, bond or purpose,” he said.
Credits Writer
Cathy Keen, ckeen@ufl.edu, 352-392-0186
Source Harrison Pinckney IV, hpinckney@neo.tamu.edu, 979-530-0253
April 7, 2007
Cover story of Rocky Mountain News: Christian Travel
Colorado's #1 newspaper The Rocky Mountain News featured a cover story on the growth of Christian travel and tourism:
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5468172,00.html
Rocky Mountain News
In the Footsteps of the Faithful
Christianity began, pilgrims have endured sleepless treks, bleeding feet, empty bellies and, in modern times, transcontinental flights with their kids. Above, Andy Lujan Jr., 12, prays on a hilltop by the road as he and his parents, Andy Lujan Sr. and Cindy Lujan, walk to the shrine in Chimayo, N.M., this week.In the footsteps of the faithful
Journeys for religious reasons have grown from a niche into an industry
By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain NewsApril 6, 2007
Scene from a pilgrimage:
The flight to Rome was an eight-hour slog. An audience with the pope loomed that morning. Now it was 5 a.m., and for the past few hours David and Jennifer Pipp's two toddlers had been tearing around the hotel room in the giddy throes of jet lag.
"We're exhausted," recalled David, "and the boys are running around and we're looking at each other and saying, 'Are we really going to try this?' "
Since Christianity began, pilgrims have endured sleepless treks, bleeding feet, empty bellies and, in modern times, transcontinental flights with their kids.
This is no vacation. Often it's no picnic either. The pilgrim embarks on a quest for spiritual healing and understanding: "It's a journey, a microcosm of real life - it demands everything you have," said the Rev. Greg Ames, a Northglenn priest who leads pilgrimages all over the world and calls himself "a pilgrimage freak."
For the Pipps, intrepid pilgrims since college days, it seemed natural to lug along David, then 3, and John, barely 12 months, on their 2001 trip to Rome, the heart of their Catholic faith.
"Family is everything to us," David Pipp said, "and little kids need the graces of a pilgrimage as much as adults do."
This Easter weekend, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims will flood St. Peter's Square, reflecting the growth in pilgrim travel. Since 2002, travel overseas for religious purposes has grown 30 percent, according to the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism.
Whether done with family in tow, as a solitary quest, or even with a huge church group on a cruise ship, faith-based travel, as it's called, has become so big that it is no longer considered a niche but an industry, Kevin Wright said. He's the founder and executive director of the Denver-based Worldwide Religious Travel Association, a network for both the travel industry and the consumer.
At 34, he had visited nearly 30 countries as a pilgrim and is writing his fourth faith-based travel book.
"Travel and faith are both passions of mine - so I'm doing what I love," Wright said.
Treks have long history
For nearly two millennia, Christians have made spiritual treks. St. Helen did in the fourth century, when she is said to have found Christ's "true cross."
Today's pilgrims still reflect the questing spirit of St. Helen. They seek out the famous staircase that Jesus reputedly walked, and climb it on their knees, as did Denver friends Irene Maestas and Alta Salazar.
They travel to Jerusalem, as does the Rev. Kim Skattum, a Northglenn minister, who feels blessed every time he visits the Garden of Olives, an area the size of a backyard "which they say still has the roots of the olive trees where Jesus prayed."
Sometimes a pilgrimage isn't to a shrine but to a lonely place that invites reflection. On a spiritual trek deep into the Pamir mountains in Kyrgyzstan in central Asia, Ames struggled with pain, but drew meaning from his suffering.
"I had bloody blisters and couldn't turn around. I had to keep going," he said. "That challenged me to the deepest level of my being."
Yet Ames never tires of the power of a pilgrimage: "I tell people, 'Watch for miracles.' They happen all the time. Little ones and big ones."
Alta Salazar wasn't looking for a miracle, just a place to sit. It was a bitter, rainy day in Rome last June, and her hip hurt so much from a longstanding sciatica problem that she wanted to drop out of a classic pilgrim ritual - the climbing, on one's knees, up the 28 marble steps of La Scala Sancta (The Holy Stairs) to atone for sins. Legend has it the steep stairway, relocated from Jerusalem, is the one Jesus walked up to meet Pilate.
"I was already limping," Salazar said. "I told Irene, I can't stand anymore.' Then I sighed and looked up the stairs and said, 'Well, if Jesus did it, I will too.' "
Only later, "I realized the pain was gone," Salazar said. That was last June, "And it hasn't been back yet."
There are many kinds of healing, as Wright of the religious travel association found at the shrine in Chimayo, N.M., often called the Lourdes of America. Accounts of its miraculous dirt have drawn pilgrims for nearly 200 years.
In September 2005, Wright lost the first joint on three fingers of his left hand in a lawn mower accident. As a lifelong athlete, a public speaker and still in his early 30s, he said it is the single toughest challenge he has faced.
As he plunged his damaged hand into Chimayo's miraculous dirt, Wright prayed in a tumult of emotions, asking for healing, "spiritually, emotionally, and yes, physically, too, though I don't expect that - and I also asked, 'Why me?' And I gave thanks for it not being worse than it is."
Wright said he believes that God has answered him with continued emotional healing, a deeper gratitude for his happy life, and an even better understanding of his calling, to promote faith-based travel. As he writes about healing sites for people with disabilities, he realizes, "I'm one of them."
Trips mix joy, suffering
Anne Conway and her husband, Jorge de la Paz, met in 1999 in Madrid, Spain, where she was a university student and he was working in aviation. After moving to Denver, her hometown, they combined a passion for faith and travel in a business, Catholics for Pilgrimages.
The Catholic idea of "offering up" sufferings to God makes the pilgrimage experience richer and more meaningful, the couple said. That can include putting up with annoying fellow pilgrims, eating peculiar food, enduring cramped bus rides.
"The spirit of pilgrimage is to understand that part of what you will experience is suffering - though, as a business, we don't purposely try to make you suffer," Anne Conway said with a smile.
While Catholics tend to emphasize pilgrimages as a disciplined spiritual quest, Protestants tend to call it "Christian travel" and emphasize the fellowship aspect. Cruise ships play a growing role these days in Christian travel, said Honnie Korngold, a former executive for the Protestant mission outreach Campus Crusade for Christ and founder of Christian Travel Finder, a California-based tourism company.
She said that churches often rent out a whole ship to avoid being at sea with alcohol, gambling and racy entertainment. Because trips are often family affairs, "Mom and dad like to know the staff aren't walking around the pool with trays of mai tais."
Both Protestants and Catholics agree that, on a pilgrimage, "blessings happen to people," Korngold said. Marriages are renewed, parents and kids give each other a second chance, "and families get away from everyday life and let God impact them."
Sometimes the greatest grace of a pilgrimage comes just from being there. Last June, Irene Maestas, 62, made her first overseas trip to visit the Vatican.
Immersed in the joy of being at the center of her faith, Maestas meandered down a little Rome side street, "and I was walking past all these sidewalk cafes and thinking, 'Oh my goodness, this looks like Rome.' Wait a minute - 'This is Rome!' "
Five unusual pilgrim places
• St. Patrick's Purgatory, Lough-Derg, County Donegal, Ireland: 1,200-year-old spiritual haven where pilgrims can make a rigorous three-day retreat, fasting on bread and water, in the same place St. Patrick reportedly did.
• Nevers, France: Visitors can gaze directly on the incorrupt body of St. Bernadette, who reported seeing the Virgin Mary at Lourdes in 1858. Bernadette's body lies in a glass coffin in the chapel of St. Gildard.
• The Eagle and the Child Pub, Oxford, England: Tavern where acclaimed Christian authors C.S. Lewis (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) and J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) hung out in a writing group famously called the Inklings.
• Mount Sinai, Egypt: A popular place to be at sunrise. Hardy pilgrims hike to the top of the mount where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments.
• Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan, Jordan: Christians come from around the world to be baptized in the same river as Jesus was.Information From World Religious Travel Association, Www.Religioustravelassociation.Com
torkelsonj@rockymountainnews.com or 303-954-5055
Copyright 2007, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_5468172,00.html
Rocky Mountain News
In the Footsteps of the Faithful
Christianity began, pilgrims have endured sleepless treks, bleeding feet, empty bellies and, in modern times, transcontinental flights with their kids. Above, Andy Lujan Jr., 12, prays on a hilltop by the road as he and his parents, Andy Lujan Sr. and Cindy Lujan, walk to the shrine in Chimayo, N.M., this week.In the footsteps of the faithful
Journeys for religious reasons have grown from a niche into an industry
By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain NewsApril 6, 2007
Scene from a pilgrimage:
The flight to Rome was an eight-hour slog. An audience with the pope loomed that morning. Now it was 5 a.m., and for the past few hours David and Jennifer Pipp's two toddlers had been tearing around the hotel room in the giddy throes of jet lag.
"We're exhausted," recalled David, "and the boys are running around and we're looking at each other and saying, 'Are we really going to try this?' "
Since Christianity began, pilgrims have endured sleepless treks, bleeding feet, empty bellies and, in modern times, transcontinental flights with their kids.
This is no vacation. Often it's no picnic either. The pilgrim embarks on a quest for spiritual healing and understanding: "It's a journey, a microcosm of real life - it demands everything you have," said the Rev. Greg Ames, a Northglenn priest who leads pilgrimages all over the world and calls himself "a pilgrimage freak."
For the Pipps, intrepid pilgrims since college days, it seemed natural to lug along David, then 3, and John, barely 12 months, on their 2001 trip to Rome, the heart of their Catholic faith.
"Family is everything to us," David Pipp said, "and little kids need the graces of a pilgrimage as much as adults do."
This Easter weekend, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims will flood St. Peter's Square, reflecting the growth in pilgrim travel. Since 2002, travel overseas for religious purposes has grown 30 percent, according to the U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism.
Whether done with family in tow, as a solitary quest, or even with a huge church group on a cruise ship, faith-based travel, as it's called, has become so big that it is no longer considered a niche but an industry, Kevin Wright said. He's the founder and executive director of the Denver-based Worldwide Religious Travel Association, a network for both the travel industry and the consumer.
At 34, he had visited nearly 30 countries as a pilgrim and is writing his fourth faith-based travel book.
"Travel and faith are both passions of mine - so I'm doing what I love," Wright said.
Treks have long history
For nearly two millennia, Christians have made spiritual treks. St. Helen did in the fourth century, when she is said to have found Christ's "true cross."
Today's pilgrims still reflect the questing spirit of St. Helen. They seek out the famous staircase that Jesus reputedly walked, and climb it on their knees, as did Denver friends Irene Maestas and Alta Salazar.
They travel to Jerusalem, as does the Rev. Kim Skattum, a Northglenn minister, who feels blessed every time he visits the Garden of Olives, an area the size of a backyard "which they say still has the roots of the olive trees where Jesus prayed."
Sometimes a pilgrimage isn't to a shrine but to a lonely place that invites reflection. On a spiritual trek deep into the Pamir mountains in Kyrgyzstan in central Asia, Ames struggled with pain, but drew meaning from his suffering.
"I had bloody blisters and couldn't turn around. I had to keep going," he said. "That challenged me to the deepest level of my being."
Yet Ames never tires of the power of a pilgrimage: "I tell people, 'Watch for miracles.' They happen all the time. Little ones and big ones."
Alta Salazar wasn't looking for a miracle, just a place to sit. It was a bitter, rainy day in Rome last June, and her hip hurt so much from a longstanding sciatica problem that she wanted to drop out of a classic pilgrim ritual - the climbing, on one's knees, up the 28 marble steps of La Scala Sancta (The Holy Stairs) to atone for sins. Legend has it the steep stairway, relocated from Jerusalem, is the one Jesus walked up to meet Pilate.
"I was already limping," Salazar said. "I told Irene, I can't stand anymore.' Then I sighed and looked up the stairs and said, 'Well, if Jesus did it, I will too.' "
Only later, "I realized the pain was gone," Salazar said. That was last June, "And it hasn't been back yet."
There are many kinds of healing, as Wright of the religious travel association found at the shrine in Chimayo, N.M., often called the Lourdes of America. Accounts of its miraculous dirt have drawn pilgrims for nearly 200 years.
In September 2005, Wright lost the first joint on three fingers of his left hand in a lawn mower accident. As a lifelong athlete, a public speaker and still in his early 30s, he said it is the single toughest challenge he has faced.
As he plunged his damaged hand into Chimayo's miraculous dirt, Wright prayed in a tumult of emotions, asking for healing, "spiritually, emotionally, and yes, physically, too, though I don't expect that - and I also asked, 'Why me?' And I gave thanks for it not being worse than it is."
Wright said he believes that God has answered him with continued emotional healing, a deeper gratitude for his happy life, and an even better understanding of his calling, to promote faith-based travel. As he writes about healing sites for people with disabilities, he realizes, "I'm one of them."
Trips mix joy, suffering
Anne Conway and her husband, Jorge de la Paz, met in 1999 in Madrid, Spain, where she was a university student and he was working in aviation. After moving to Denver, her hometown, they combined a passion for faith and travel in a business, Catholics for Pilgrimages.
The Catholic idea of "offering up" sufferings to God makes the pilgrimage experience richer and more meaningful, the couple said. That can include putting up with annoying fellow pilgrims, eating peculiar food, enduring cramped bus rides.
"The spirit of pilgrimage is to understand that part of what you will experience is suffering - though, as a business, we don't purposely try to make you suffer," Anne Conway said with a smile.
While Catholics tend to emphasize pilgrimages as a disciplined spiritual quest, Protestants tend to call it "Christian travel" and emphasize the fellowship aspect. Cruise ships play a growing role these days in Christian travel, said Honnie Korngold, a former executive for the Protestant mission outreach Campus Crusade for Christ and founder of Christian Travel Finder, a California-based tourism company.
She said that churches often rent out a whole ship to avoid being at sea with alcohol, gambling and racy entertainment. Because trips are often family affairs, "Mom and dad like to know the staff aren't walking around the pool with trays of mai tais."
Both Protestants and Catholics agree that, on a pilgrimage, "blessings happen to people," Korngold said. Marriages are renewed, parents and kids give each other a second chance, "and families get away from everyday life and let God impact them."
Sometimes the greatest grace of a pilgrimage comes just from being there. Last June, Irene Maestas, 62, made her first overseas trip to visit the Vatican.
Immersed in the joy of being at the center of her faith, Maestas meandered down a little Rome side street, "and I was walking past all these sidewalk cafes and thinking, 'Oh my goodness, this looks like Rome.' Wait a minute - 'This is Rome!' "
Five unusual pilgrim places
• St. Patrick's Purgatory, Lough-Derg, County Donegal, Ireland: 1,200-year-old spiritual haven where pilgrims can make a rigorous three-day retreat, fasting on bread and water, in the same place St. Patrick reportedly did.
• Nevers, France: Visitors can gaze directly on the incorrupt body of St. Bernadette, who reported seeing the Virgin Mary at Lourdes in 1858. Bernadette's body lies in a glass coffin in the chapel of St. Gildard.
• The Eagle and the Child Pub, Oxford, England: Tavern where acclaimed Christian authors C.S. Lewis (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) and J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) hung out in a writing group famously called the Inklings.
• Mount Sinai, Egypt: A popular place to be at sunrise. Hardy pilgrims hike to the top of the mount where God gave Moses the 10 Commandments.
• Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan, Jordan: Christians come from around the world to be baptized in the same river as Jesus was.Information From World Religious Travel Association, Www.Religioustravelassociation.Com
torkelsonj@rockymountainnews.com or 303-954-5055
Copyright 2007, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
Travel colleges recognizing growth of religious tourism
Travel colleges recognizing growth of religious tourism:
http://www.firststoponlinedegree.com/articles/faithbased-international-travel-sector.php
Faith-based International Travel Sector
March 23, 2007by J.V. StaplesFirst Stop Online Degree ColumnistThe faith-based international travel sector is flourishing. More and more consumers are choosing to take a retreat or pilgrimage, spelling billions in profits for the industry. How has faith-based travel changed business?
Travel in ParadiseAccording to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the faith-based travel industry is one of the hottest growing travel sectors, bringing in some serious cash. The International Conference on Religious Tourism estimates the faith-based travel industry to be worth about $18 billion. A survey conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America in 2006 found that one in four travelers are presently interested in taking a spiritual vacation such as a retreat or pilgrimage. The pilgrim-soul apparently crosses generations, with about a third of each age group reporting a desire to go on a religious holiday.
Stepping Out in FaithIn response to the recent growth of the faith-based travel industry, two of the sector's authorities have launched the World Religious Travel Association. Kevin J. Wright (President, Religious Market Consulting Group) and Honnie Korngold (President, Christian Travel Finder) have created the organization to advise the worldwide travel industry in approaching the North American religious consumer, to build faith-based vacation and travel opportunities for them, and to connect them with the worldwide travel industry.
Tourism Degree Programs and Online DegreesThe travel industry is constantly changing, with niche markets opening up and evolving, and you'll need more than faith to get a travel agent job. A tourism degree will get you on the road to a career in international travel. You might have a degree program available at one of your local colleges. But, better yet, with an online degree, you can head off on your own-whether on a serious pilgrimage or a take-it-easy beach holiday--while enrolled in your degree program. Source:
$18 Billion Religious Travel Industry Gives Birth to International AssociationAuthor:J.V. Staples is a writer and teacher living on the southeast coast of Ireland. He has worked as a graphic designer; teacher of English as a foreign language; university writing instructor; and editor of Salt Hill, a literary magazine. John holds an honors BA in English from the University of Georgia and a Masters in creative writing from Syracuse University.
http://www.firststoponlinedegree.com/articles/faithbased-international-travel-sector.php
Faith-based International Travel Sector
March 23, 2007by J.V. StaplesFirst Stop Online Degree ColumnistThe faith-based international travel sector is flourishing. More and more consumers are choosing to take a retreat or pilgrimage, spelling billions in profits for the industry. How has faith-based travel changed business?
Travel in ParadiseAccording to the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the faith-based travel industry is one of the hottest growing travel sectors, bringing in some serious cash. The International Conference on Religious Tourism estimates the faith-based travel industry to be worth about $18 billion. A survey conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America in 2006 found that one in four travelers are presently interested in taking a spiritual vacation such as a retreat or pilgrimage. The pilgrim-soul apparently crosses generations, with about a third of each age group reporting a desire to go on a religious holiday.
Stepping Out in FaithIn response to the recent growth of the faith-based travel industry, two of the sector's authorities have launched the World Religious Travel Association. Kevin J. Wright (President, Religious Market Consulting Group) and Honnie Korngold (President, Christian Travel Finder) have created the organization to advise the worldwide travel industry in approaching the North American religious consumer, to build faith-based vacation and travel opportunities for them, and to connect them with the worldwide travel industry.
Tourism Degree Programs and Online DegreesThe travel industry is constantly changing, with niche markets opening up and evolving, and you'll need more than faith to get a travel agent job. A tourism degree will get you on the road to a career in international travel. You might have a degree program available at one of your local colleges. But, better yet, with an online degree, you can head off on your own-whether on a serious pilgrimage or a take-it-easy beach holiday--while enrolled in your degree program. Source:
$18 Billion Religious Travel Industry Gives Birth to International AssociationAuthor:J.V. Staples is a writer and teacher living on the southeast coast of Ireland. He has worked as a graphic designer; teacher of English as a foreign language; university writing instructor; and editor of Salt Hill, a literary magazine. John holds an honors BA in English from the University of Georgia and a Masters in creative writing from Syracuse University.
Hotels recognizing growth of Religious Market
The emiment hotel and lodging magazine of LODGING HOSPITALITY recently covered the growth of religious travel and the World Religious Travel Association.
Traveling With Faith
Faithbased travel is on the rise
The growth of travel and of faith have led to formation of the World Religious Travel Association, a Colorado-based group that aims to foster faith-based travel worldwide. Launched at the end of January by Kevin J. Wright and Honnie Korngold, WRTA aims to leverage an industry that travel-trade veteran Wright says is maturing rapidly for three reasons:
"The first is that in the last 10 years, we've seen an increase of about 45 percent of Americans traveling overseas," he says. Equally important: a U.S. population increase in people of faith in the last 10 years, when, Wright claims, "the Christian faith has grown by 10 million people," in proportion to an overall increase in the country's population.
Accompanying these signifiers is evidence that in the last 10 to 20 years, "people of faith are spending money on products relating to their faith," such as pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Outward Bound gatherings or fellowship travel. He also points to growth in religious-based publishing and cinema.
He and Christian-event marketer Korngold founded WRTA to help the travel trade expand its presence in the religious market, help the faith-based travel consumer learn about applicable travel opportunities and connect the two groups.
Dues range from complimentary to $10,000 for an executive membership for, say, a cruise line. The association is actively recruiting its dozen charter members and, Wright says, is in discussion with "one major hotel chain to become the representative charter member for the lodging industry."
Did the idea for this association come to him as a revelation? No, he says, suggesting it was more a culmination. A graduate of Washington State University in Pullman, WA, Wright has written several books about faith-based travel. In 2004, when he was working for Globus in Denver, he persuaded the tour operator to launch a religious travel division.
"Now, there's really a demand for an association because religious travel is no longer a niche," Wright says. "It is an industry."
LH Staff editor@lhonline.com
Traveling With Faith
Faithbased travel is on the rise
The growth of travel and of faith have led to formation of the World Religious Travel Association, a Colorado-based group that aims to foster faith-based travel worldwide. Launched at the end of January by Kevin J. Wright and Honnie Korngold, WRTA aims to leverage an industry that travel-trade veteran Wright says is maturing rapidly for three reasons:
"The first is that in the last 10 years, we've seen an increase of about 45 percent of Americans traveling overseas," he says. Equally important: a U.S. population increase in people of faith in the last 10 years, when, Wright claims, "the Christian faith has grown by 10 million people," in proportion to an overall increase in the country's population.
Accompanying these signifiers is evidence that in the last 10 to 20 years, "people of faith are spending money on products relating to their faith," such as pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Outward Bound gatherings or fellowship travel. He also points to growth in religious-based publishing and cinema.
He and Christian-event marketer Korngold founded WRTA to help the travel trade expand its presence in the religious market, help the faith-based travel consumer learn about applicable travel opportunities and connect the two groups.
Dues range from complimentary to $10,000 for an executive membership for, say, a cruise line. The association is actively recruiting its dozen charter members and, Wright says, is in discussion with "one major hotel chain to become the representative charter member for the lodging industry."
Did the idea for this association come to him as a revelation? No, he says, suggesting it was more a culmination. A graduate of Washington State University in Pullman, WA, Wright has written several books about faith-based travel. In 2004, when he was working for Globus in Denver, he persuaded the tour operator to launch a religious travel division.
"Now, there's really a demand for an association because religious travel is no longer a niche," Wright says. "It is an industry."
LH Staff editor@lhonline.com
Faith-based Cruising
The LA DAILY recently covered the fast-growing segment of Christian and faith-based cruising:
http://www.dailynews.com/business/ci_5514668
Holy seas
Christians convert cruise ships
BARBARA CORREA, Staff writerLA Daily News
Article Last Updated:03/24/2007 05:44:29 PM PDT
Imagine a cruise to Alaska where the casino is converted into a Christian bookstore, the bars serve orange juice but no vodka, and the Vegas-style entertainers are replaced with G-rated comedians and preachers.
Forget the Love Boat. Think Love Thy Neighbor.
Special interests have long taken to the high seas to pursue their passions with like-minded travelers. There are cruises for chocolate lovers, clothing-optional groups, Trekkies, craft enthusiasts and gays and lesbians.
But Christian cruises change the traditional cruise experience more fundamentally than any other niche.
Dry and dark
Responding to demand, cruise promoters are increasingly chartering entire 3,000-bed cruise ships for Christian passengers so they can control the environment onboard. That means more ships are sailing with "darkened" casinos and the bars serve nonalcoholic beverages.
"The great thing with the Christian market is the ability to take a typical Carnival cruise and change that to a Christian theme," said Cherie Weinstein, vice president of group sales and administration at Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator.
"They will shut down the casinos, remove all liquor from the bars, or at least move it from display."
They can also make sure showgirls cover up racy outfits and swap out naughty comedians for clean comics. Weinstein said full-ship charters cost more because of lost revenue from the casinos and bars.
But Carnival works with the cruise promoters to make up the losses elsewhere, with sales of books and audio tapes, for example. Full-ship charters still represent a small slice of the overall cruise business, but it's a desirable slice.
"It's a very important portion because it's volume business," said Weinstein.
Most Christian cruises sail out of ports in Florida or the Gulf Coast. But rising demand in California and the Southwest is prompting cruise companies to consider more excursions to Mexico from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, said Lisa Mann of All Christian Cruises, based in Roswell, Ga.
Even when Christian cruise promoters share the ship with other groups or individuals, they tend to do things in a way that stands out. Premier Christian Cruises' Girl's Get-A-Way weekend trip to Cozumel, Mexico, offers morning worship services and a fashion show by Christi's Pure Fashion, a Glendale, Ohio, company that makes modest clothing that encourages women to celebrate their "authentic beauty."
Pilgrimage to leisure
Historically, religious travel has fallen under the category of either educational tours to the Holy Land or mission trips to evangelize and do outreach in disadvantaged areas. But the rise of Christian marketing has resulted in busy religious families looking for a way to relax and maybe worship at the same time.
"There has been a generational change," said David Meier, a Baptist minister in Texas who started International Travel & Tour Consultants 38 years ago.
The company still arranges educational trips to Israel, Egypt and Greece, following in the footsteps of St. Paul. But not as many as it used to.
"There was a time when there was a very heavy demand. There aren't as many people traveling now for that; it's more for leisure and relaxation."
Kevin Wright, a religious market consultant and co-founder of the World Religious Travel Association, said that in the past decade, the religious travel model has shifted from groups traveling to a religious destination with a religious intent to religious people looking for fun and friendship.
The Christian cruise offers a tempting package. For about $599 for a four-night, five-day cruise, travelers of faith can take a real vacation along with some religious enrichment.
Tours to the Holy Land start at about $1,300, not including airfare, said Honnie Korngold, president of Christian Travel Finder, an agency in Sunset Beach.
"It's one thing to fly your family down to Florida and go to the Bahamas and back," said John Sanders, a co-founder of Premier Christian Cruises and vocalist for the Christian band, Brother's Keeper. "It's another thing to take them through other countries and through a dangerous environment."
In the same boat
Family-themed cruises like Premier's "VeggieTales & Friends Cruise" and singles trips are popular subsets of the Christian cruise niche.
Tom Harris, a 52-year-old minister from San Diego, just finished a one-week singles cruise out of Fort Lauderdale to Key West, Cozumel and Belize.
"It's lonely to travel if you're single," he said. "I've been on trips with two or three friends, but it sounded thrilling to be with a group in my age bracket that I might have faith in common with."
He said he didn't meet a significant other on the trip, but he did make some great friends and is already planning his next Christian cruise. Harris' cruise was not a full-ship charter, so he was rubbing shoulders with plenty of non-Christians and made friends with a Jewish couple.
In a show of brotherly love, most tour operators say sharing the whole ship with the larger cruise population - gambling, alcohol, and all - is no problem.
Lorilee Scott's Matter of the Heart Ministries organizes cruises for Christian singles who share space with non-Christians.
"If people say they can't be where there's alcohol, I say this is not the cruise for you. I'm a Southern Baptist, but I know that Jesus drank wine, not grape juice."
She said she wouldn't serve drinks at a Christian-related seminar, and if someone showed up in a bikini, she might ask them to cover up. But there's never a problem, she said.
Her travelers get along great with everyone, she said, because they are not judgmental.
Not just the religion
Indeed, most Christian cruises are organized along secular lines with plenty of music, sporting contests, dancing and other features of standard cruises.
Some of the most popular are floating music festivals, headlined by superstars from the contemporary Christian music world. Christian illusionists and even Christian wrestlers are onboard as well.
Retired Army veteran Ken Bachini and his wife, Michelle, have been on two cruises with artists from K-Love, a contemporary Christian radio network, and they have already signed up for their third this year.
Bachini said he likes being surrounded by music he is already familiar with, and that the Christian environment makes him feel more comfortable traveling with his children.
"The people are so friendly. There's not a lot of vulgar language going on, \ you feel fine having your kids on the boat," said Bachini, who has done both Christian and secular cruises. "You tend to see more rudeness on the non-Christian cruises. The way people are treating one another, it is night and day."
Travel agents and cruise operators say they are girding for even more growth. Effective Jan. 1, 2008, all cruise passengers will be required to have passports to travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. (Similar passport rules went into effect for air travelers in January.)
"Travel is a very new frontier for Christians," said Honnie Korngold. "I would say 75 percent of our Mexico cruise had never been on a cruise before. ... With the new passport laws, it will be easier for them to think about traveling abroad."
Skeptic's view
Not everyone is convinced, however, about the new religious travel model. Ronen Paldi, president of Ya'lla Tours, a Portland, Ore., agency that specializes in tours to biblical lands, agrees that the demographic of faith-based travel is changing.
But he doesn't think Christian cruises are where the growth will continue to be. "The cruise is very interesting," he said. "But I think we are reaching its peak right now. What will continue to grow is people going for the real thing and seeing the real sites."
barbara.correa@dailynews.com
(818) 713-3662
http://www.dailynews.com/business/ci_5514668
Holy seas
Christians convert cruise ships
BARBARA CORREA, Staff writerLA Daily News
Article Last Updated:03/24/2007 05:44:29 PM PDT
Imagine a cruise to Alaska where the casino is converted into a Christian bookstore, the bars serve orange juice but no vodka, and the Vegas-style entertainers are replaced with G-rated comedians and preachers.
Forget the Love Boat. Think Love Thy Neighbor.
Special interests have long taken to the high seas to pursue their passions with like-minded travelers. There are cruises for chocolate lovers, clothing-optional groups, Trekkies, craft enthusiasts and gays and lesbians.
But Christian cruises change the traditional cruise experience more fundamentally than any other niche.
Dry and dark
Responding to demand, cruise promoters are increasingly chartering entire 3,000-bed cruise ships for Christian passengers so they can control the environment onboard. That means more ships are sailing with "darkened" casinos and the bars serve nonalcoholic beverages.
"The great thing with the Christian market is the ability to take a typical Carnival cruise and change that to a Christian theme," said Cherie Weinstein, vice president of group sales and administration at Miami-based Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise operator.
"They will shut down the casinos, remove all liquor from the bars, or at least move it from display."
They can also make sure showgirls cover up racy outfits and swap out naughty comedians for clean comics. Weinstein said full-ship charters cost more because of lost revenue from the casinos and bars.
But Carnival works with the cruise promoters to make up the losses elsewhere, with sales of books and audio tapes, for example. Full-ship charters still represent a small slice of the overall cruise business, but it's a desirable slice.
"It's a very important portion because it's volume business," said Weinstein.
Most Christian cruises sail out of ports in Florida or the Gulf Coast. But rising demand in California and the Southwest is prompting cruise companies to consider more excursions to Mexico from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles, said Lisa Mann of All Christian Cruises, based in Roswell, Ga.
Even when Christian cruise promoters share the ship with other groups or individuals, they tend to do things in a way that stands out. Premier Christian Cruises' Girl's Get-A-Way weekend trip to Cozumel, Mexico, offers morning worship services and a fashion show by Christi's Pure Fashion, a Glendale, Ohio, company that makes modest clothing that encourages women to celebrate their "authentic beauty."
Pilgrimage to leisure
Historically, religious travel has fallen under the category of either educational tours to the Holy Land or mission trips to evangelize and do outreach in disadvantaged areas. But the rise of Christian marketing has resulted in busy religious families looking for a way to relax and maybe worship at the same time.
"There has been a generational change," said David Meier, a Baptist minister in Texas who started International Travel & Tour Consultants 38 years ago.
The company still arranges educational trips to Israel, Egypt and Greece, following in the footsteps of St. Paul. But not as many as it used to.
"There was a time when there was a very heavy demand. There aren't as many people traveling now for that; it's more for leisure and relaxation."
Kevin Wright, a religious market consultant and co-founder of the World Religious Travel Association, said that in the past decade, the religious travel model has shifted from groups traveling to a religious destination with a religious intent to religious people looking for fun and friendship.
The Christian cruise offers a tempting package. For about $599 for a four-night, five-day cruise, travelers of faith can take a real vacation along with some religious enrichment.
Tours to the Holy Land start at about $1,300, not including airfare, said Honnie Korngold, president of Christian Travel Finder, an agency in Sunset Beach.
"It's one thing to fly your family down to Florida and go to the Bahamas and back," said John Sanders, a co-founder of Premier Christian Cruises and vocalist for the Christian band, Brother's Keeper. "It's another thing to take them through other countries and through a dangerous environment."
In the same boat
Family-themed cruises like Premier's "VeggieTales & Friends Cruise" and singles trips are popular subsets of the Christian cruise niche.
Tom Harris, a 52-year-old minister from San Diego, just finished a one-week singles cruise out of Fort Lauderdale to Key West, Cozumel and Belize.
"It's lonely to travel if you're single," he said. "I've been on trips with two or three friends, but it sounded thrilling to be with a group in my age bracket that I might have faith in common with."
He said he didn't meet a significant other on the trip, but he did make some great friends and is already planning his next Christian cruise. Harris' cruise was not a full-ship charter, so he was rubbing shoulders with plenty of non-Christians and made friends with a Jewish couple.
In a show of brotherly love, most tour operators say sharing the whole ship with the larger cruise population - gambling, alcohol, and all - is no problem.
Lorilee Scott's Matter of the Heart Ministries organizes cruises for Christian singles who share space with non-Christians.
"If people say they can't be where there's alcohol, I say this is not the cruise for you. I'm a Southern Baptist, but I know that Jesus drank wine, not grape juice."
She said she wouldn't serve drinks at a Christian-related seminar, and if someone showed up in a bikini, she might ask them to cover up. But there's never a problem, she said.
Her travelers get along great with everyone, she said, because they are not judgmental.
Not just the religion
Indeed, most Christian cruises are organized along secular lines with plenty of music, sporting contests, dancing and other features of standard cruises.
Some of the most popular are floating music festivals, headlined by superstars from the contemporary Christian music world. Christian illusionists and even Christian wrestlers are onboard as well.
Retired Army veteran Ken Bachini and his wife, Michelle, have been on two cruises with artists from K-Love, a contemporary Christian radio network, and they have already signed up for their third this year.
Bachini said he likes being surrounded by music he is already familiar with, and that the Christian environment makes him feel more comfortable traveling with his children.
"The people are so friendly. There's not a lot of vulgar language going on, \ you feel fine having your kids on the boat," said Bachini, who has done both Christian and secular cruises. "You tend to see more rudeness on the non-Christian cruises. The way people are treating one another, it is night and day."
Travel agents and cruise operators say they are girding for even more growth. Effective Jan. 1, 2008, all cruise passengers will be required to have passports to travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. (Similar passport rules went into effect for air travelers in January.)
"Travel is a very new frontier for Christians," said Honnie Korngold. "I would say 75 percent of our Mexico cruise had never been on a cruise before. ... With the new passport laws, it will be easier for them to think about traveling abroad."
Skeptic's view
Not everyone is convinced, however, about the new religious travel model. Ronen Paldi, president of Ya'lla Tours, a Portland, Ore., agency that specializes in tours to biblical lands, agrees that the demographic of faith-based travel is changing.
But he doesn't think Christian cruises are where the growth will continue to be. "The cruise is very interesting," he said. "But I think we are reaching its peak right now. What will continue to grow is people going for the real thing and seeing the real sites."
barbara.correa@dailynews.com
(818) 713-3662
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