By 2030, Islam will be the worlds largest religion and western consumers wouldn’t believe in God, so what does this mean for the future religious tourism?

In 2007, Globus launched a separate religious division to develop and operate religious vacations because they predict religious tourism vacations will grow by 50% by 2010, both for Christian and Islamic faiths. New religious vacations introduced by Globus include ‘Christian England and the World of C.S. Lewis’, ‘A Journey through the Bible: Egypt and Jordan’, ‘The Grand Catholic Italy’ vacation and a tour of Lourdes and the Shrines of France, all of whichoffer personal, in-depth visits to famous religious sites. In 2006, Globus held regional Religious Travel Symposiums and Faith-Based Travel Showcases with presentations by pastors who run travel programs, providing education and sales strategies for travel agents interested in offering religious vacations to their clients. Additionally, the Globus Faith website acts as a resource for agents selling faith-based travel, as well as travellers interested in learning more about the world’s great religious sites. Globus recently introduced a feature providing website visitors with the stories behind each religious site, giving them historical context for the offerings of each vacation.The World Tourism Organisation (UN WTO) has reported that the number of tourism arrivals in the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region has increased at amuch faster rate over the last decade than in the rest of the world. The average annual increase in the Asia Pacific region was some 13%, whilst it was 10% in the Middle East. There are several factors behind this growth, including affordable flights and the increased focus on tourism. Religious tourism has played its part, especially when one considers that Buddhists and Hindus regard India as the most spiritual country on earth, that Saudi Arabia is home to the two holiest sites in Islam and that Israel and Palestine comprise the Holy Land, a destination of immense importance to Christians, Jews and Muslims throughout the world.

The Changing Face of World Religions

The centre of any civilisation is its culture and the core of culture is religion. More than any other factor, religion infuses a culture with a perception of reality in the broadest sense of the term by offering explanations for the origins of the universe and giving a deeper meaning to historical events, as well as to humanity’s place within history. At present, no single religion dominates among the 6.5 billion million people on Earth. Despite the hundreds of existing religions, nearly 75% of the planet’s population belong to the five most influential religions in terms of global impact: Christianity (2.1 billion), Islam (1.3 billion), Hinduism (900 million), Buddhism (370 million) and Judaism (18 million). Christianity and Islam are found in more regions than all other religions. Together they encompass more than half the world’s population. Add Hinduism, and two out of every three people belong to one of only three faiths. Clearly, religion is one of the major driving forces of the future Looking at the trends in detail, it is noted that Islam is the fastest-growing major religion in the world and the number of practising Muslims is forecast to overtake practising Christians by 2040 in the United Kingdom. Britain’s churches could be redundant by 2040, with only just over 2% of the population attending Sunday services. By 2040, there will be nearly twice as many Muslims at prayer on a Friday compared with Christians on a Sunday. AU :3

Professor Thomas McFaul, writing in The Futurist, believes thatmost probably the direction of religion in the future is greater Exclusiveness and Pluralism. Between now and 2025, Exclusiveness will increase, whereas between 2025 and 2050 Pluralism will gradually replace it. Exclusivist is based on a global villaged is integrating into an uncompromising clash of ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’; much of the blame for this is placed at the door of religion. Christianity and Islam will turn their backs on the quest for a common ground, which would transcend their differences, and this will create barriers between religions and block co-operation, whereas Pluralism will mean living together despite the differences. With the sprawling electronic communications, homogenous regions will become more heterogeneous which will drive the religious Pluralism to such an extent that religion and spirituality will become blurred.

World Tourism and Religion

According to the UN World Tourism Organisation, there were 39.1 million international arrivals to the Middle East in 2005, this according to Dr Ian Yeoman is forecasted to rise to 158.9 million by 2030. The region of the world associated with religious tourism is the Middle East because this is the centre of pilgrimage for Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Tourism in the Middle East earned more than US $26 billion from international tourism in 2005. Egypt is the biggest earner in the region, with US $6.9 billion from international tourism, followed by Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Leisure, recreation and holidays appear to be the most common purpose of travel. The second most important category ofpurpose of travel in 2005 was visiting friends and relatives (VFR), or for religion, health or other purposes — currently accounting for 34% of arrivals. In 2004, 43% of international arrivals to Saudi Arabia were for pilgrimage or religious reasons, making pilgrimage the number-one reason for visits. Saudi Arabia is clearly out in front compared to other countries; even in Israel pilgrimage accounts for only 10% of international arrivals. As a result of the problems of collecting statistics in Palestine, year-on-year figures are not comparable. However, in 2000 there were 1 million international arrivals, 66% of which were for pilgrimage and religion. This number was reduced to 9453 in 2002 because of the ongoing geopolitical situation.

Mecca is important to Muslims because they believe it is the place where Mohammed was born, where he established Islam and where he received from Allah the messages recorded in the Quran. The Quran requires all Muslims, to visit Mecca once in their lifetime during the Hajj — if they can afford it and if their health allows it. According to the UK governments 2001 census there were 1.6 million Muslims in the United Kingdom, with 25% actively practising their faith. In 2005, 2.56 million Muslims took part in the Hajj, an 8848% increase since 1930 or a 33% increase since 2004. Between 20,000 and 40,000 UK pilgrims travel to the Hajj every year.

Outside the Middle East - where statistics are available - the main reason for visits attributed to pilgrimage and religion as a percentage of all visitations was as follows:

  • Bangladesh — 0.01%
  • Bolivia — 0.01%
  • Burkina Faso — 0.014%
  • Ireland — 0.0005%
  • Micronesia — 0.03%
  • Nepal — 11.8%
  • Poland — 0.007%
  • Pakistan — 0.01%
  • Turkey — 0.004%

Clearly, outside the Middle East, pilgrimage and religion are not the main reasons for visitation. However, in advanced western destinations churches do play an important role in a range of tourism products, such as weddings, Christmas, genealogy, interest in architecture or simple curiosity.

Why Spirituality Not Religion is the Future for Western Consumers

Religion is playing an increasingly less important role in people’s lives especially the younger generation in the western world. This, combined with the fact that one in five people do not assign to themselves any religion according to research by the Future Foundation, leads us to ask why is then there an interest in religious tourism per se. Religion is defined as a group of beliefs or attitudes concerning an object, person or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred or divine’, whereas spirituality is a ‘sense of connection to a much greater whole which includes an emotional experience of religious awe and reverence’. There is a growth in the number of people who wish that their lives had more spiritual content, more of a sense of higher purpose. We need to look only at the appearance of the word ‘spirituality’ in practically every area of self-help, inspirational literature and advertisments for many products, from deodorants to jewellery, fashion to holidays to see how the yearning for some kind of ‘spirituality’ has become ubiquitous. Spirituality appears to be less about attending formal ceremonies and services associated with religion and more about incorporating a generalised sense of belief into daily life. Spirituality is best exemplified in the Chicken Soup series of books which promote greater time for contemplation, whether an exploration of who you are, what goals you can achieve or how you ‘connect’ to other people. Spirituality manifests itself in terms of self-fulfilment, arguably the search for the quintessential authenticity in modern society and well-being, in which spirituality is an extension of our concern forlongevity and health and fitness. From a tourism perspective, spirituality manifests itself as the desire to get away from daily life, and holidays provide the avenue and the environment for mediated experiences. Whether this is ‘it’s just me and the mountain’ or the enjoyment of the great outdoors which have a strong spiritual dimension.

The appetite for ‘getting away from it all’ or ‘getting in touch with one’s true self ’ is strong and is growing. Holidays certainly seem to provide the right environment for these kinds of ‘unmediated’ experiences, the idea that ‘It’s just me and the mountain’ and, of course, for some people, the great outdoors has a strong spiritual dimension and satisfies some inner yearning. Hence the growing desire to find authenticity within ourselves, through rejecting fake destinations and attractions. The search for one’s inner self is about a self-actualisation which focuses on the altruistic and self-development experiences. Volunteers can gain these experiences when working on projects. For example, the Church of Scotland supports a number of projects in several countries such as Malawi and Scotland. In these projects people volunteer their time and skills to help those who are less fortunate. Spirituality is also connected to our participation in a cultured society driven by rising disposal income, which is illustrated by the consumer taking more short breaks and trying out new experiences. People in today’s society participate in a wide variety of leisure activities, including a search for non-material, inner experiences, learning new skills or even going back to traditional activities and putting a modern, techno friendly twist on them. This means that spirituality is becoming an important motive for travel and many destinations are promoted in connection with spiritual motivations.

Concluding Thoughts............

The outlook for religious tourism is good, especially for Islamic sites, given the strength of faith in that religion. Countries like Saudi Arabia will see considerable growth. On the downside, the geopolitical environment in the Middle East is a barrier for development, especially for countries like Israel and Palestine. Religion whether we like it or not, is a consumer product. As the world becomes more accessible and niche products emerge, an interest in the rich culture which surrounds religion can be viewed only in a positive manner. Religion manifests itself at many stages of life, from birth to death, from marriage to times of tragedy, so it is very likely to be present in the tourism landscape for generations to come. At present, pilgrimage per se is not a core driver for travel; this is evident in many countries such as Poland or Ireland where less than 0.001% of visits are made for purely religious reasons. However, places of worship or the function of religion in tourism activities, that is, weddings, means that religion is an important part of the product. Outside religion, the consumers’ demand for a more authentic, spiritual and cultural experience will result in an increased number of itineraries, including religious sites and places of worship; these will become places of escapism, relaxation, meditation and well-being. Spirituality is just one element of the religious experience outside faith itself. Religion and spirituality have a part to play in future. That is only natural.

Ian Yeoman’s new book, tomorrows tourist discusses what the future tourist will look like in 2030, where they will go on holiday and what they will do.

Ian Yeoman is the world’s only professional crystal ball gazer or futurologist specializing in travel and tourism. Ian learned his trade as the scenario planner for VisitScotland, where he established the process of futures thinking within the organisation using a variety of techniques including economic modelling, trends analysis and scenario construction. In May 2008, Ian was appointed an Assoc. Professor of Tourism Management at Victoria University. He is a popular speaker at conferences and was described by the UK Sunday Times as the country's leading contemporary futurologist.

Ian has a PhD in Management Science from Napier University, Edinburgh and a BSc (Hons) in Catering Systems from Sheffield Hallam University. Previously, Ian was Senior Lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Management at Napier University and University College, Birmingham. He has extensive experience within the hospitality industry, for which he was a hotel manager with Trusthouse Forte.

Ian has received a number of awards in recognition of his research including his appointment as a Honorary Professor of Tourism Management at Stirling University and the Mike Simpson Award from the Operational Research Society.

Further details about Ian and futurology in the travel industry can be at

Ian Yeoman
Victoria University Management School | Victoria University
00 64 (0) 4 463 5717
Tomorrows Tourist