Jan26Written by:Vanessa Hughton
26/01/2012 20:49 
Millions of people travel each year for the purpose of religious pilgrimages, but the popularity of religious tourism is on the increase. There are several key areas that attract faith tourists – for example, Christians often visit holy places in the Middle East or Europe, and Buddhists are often drawn to Asian countries including Nepal and India and Japan. Turkey is actively marketing centres in the country as a focus for religious tourism, pointing out the historical links to Christianity, and Judaism in Anatolia as well as rich treasures of Islamic Art.
Currently religious tourists usually focus on holy sites and cities – and the most famous of these are Jerusalem, Mecca and Varanese in India. Packages have been developed for religious tourists enabling them to see key places related to their faith. At a less organized level there are many cities becoming more aware of advertising their religious heritage along with key religious monuments, and famous churches and cathedrals, synagogues and mosques.