Introduction

As Chapter 3 emphasized, religious tourism is big business, and although many ‘traditional’ pilgrims spend relatively little money on their journeys, this is changing drastically, and the overall economic impact of pilgrimage-based tourism throughout the world is immense (Egresi et al. , 2014; Vukonić, 2002). With this realization, religious tourism has become the focus of much promotional attention by destinations, tour operators, travel agencies and other service providers.

The promotion of religious travel is done primarily in the same ways and using the same methods as all other forms of tourism. Its main goal is to promote places, increase visitor numbers and augment regional and business income through tourist expenditures. It is important for destinations to satisfy the needs of visitors and to meet their expectations. This is particularly true in Christian destinations. Because Christian pilgrimages or religiously motivated travel in general are not obligatory as they are in some other faiths, people have the option whether or not to visit a place, how long they will stay or how frequently they will visit. Although most shrines and churches care little about attracting more visitors, except for the purpose of ecumenical outreach and spreading spiritual enlightenment, the destinations where these sites are located care a great deal about attracting more visitor attention and meeting visitors’ travel requirements. Thus, Christian destinations and commercial attractions must compete for the increasingly lucrative visitor market. In doing so, they too must satisfy Christian travelers’ needs and desires by providing unique and memorable experiences that help visitors feel the spirit while simultaneously learning something new and enjoying their stay (Richards & Fernandes, 2011).

This chapter carries on from the commodification discussion before it to examine the promotional activities associated with Christian travel. It first examines the main stakeholders that promote, market and produce religious travel experiences, such as destinations and their management organizations, tour operators and travel agencies, faith organizations and other service providers.