Wednesday 13 February 2013

Religious Tourism

Definition:  also commonly referred to as faith tourism, is a form of tourism, where people travel individually or in groups for pilgrimage, missionary, or leisure (fellowship) purposes.
This type of holiday involves people visiting religious sites in order to understand and appreciate their religion through a tangible experience, to feel secure about their religious beliefs, and to connect personally to the holy city.
 The largest example of faith tourism is the annual Hajj pilgrimage which takes place at Mecca, Saudi Arabia. In N. America $10 billion of the industry is made up of faith tourism. This type of tourism tends to occur as people visit holy cities or holy sites, most notably Jerusalem, Mecca and Varanasi. According to world tourism statistics approximately 300-330 million pilgrims travel to religious sites each year.
Americans travelling overseas for religious or pilgrimage reasons has increased from 491,000 travelers in 2001 to 633,000 travelers in 2005 (30% increase). The United Methodist Church experienced an increase of 455% in mission volunteers from 1992 with almost 20,000 volunteers compared to 110,000 volunteers in 2006. Also the development of attractions such as 'Sight and Sound theatre' attracts 800,000 visitors each year.
As well as this the growth will continue to expand as recent studies show that 25% of travelers have said they are interested in venturing on a spiritual adventure.
 O. Wetton

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