Religious tourism is one of the oldest and most meaningful forms of travel, offering pilgrims and spiritual seekers a chance to connect with their faith and explore sacred destinations around the world. As global mobility increases, so does the number of visitors to holy sites—bringing both opportunities and challenges.
This article explores the historical evolution of religious tourism, its economic and cultural impact, and the growing pressures faced by sacred places in the modern era. From Makkah to the Vatican to Varanasi, we examine how faith and tourism intersect in a rapidly changing world.
Travel far enough, you meet yourself.
–
David Mitchell
To paraphrase English novelist David Mitchell, travel can be much more than a mysterious and unknown experience. It can give individuals the opportunity to find faith, develop spirituality and gain a better understanding not only of the world but also of themselves.
Following his line of thought, religious tourism is probably one of the oldest forms of tourism, even though the word "tourism" only appeared in the English language at the beginning of the 19th century. Religion has always played a key role in human civilizations. Its diversity has not only meant different approaches to spirituality, beliefs and morals, but also how societies adapt to their environment. In addition, it creates social cohesion and a sense of belonging while explaining existential questions such as the meaning of life, death, social norms, values and expected behavior. Although some religions have faced challenges in history, they have rarely been separated from society, so their significance has seldom been disputed. Thanks to modern technological and social developments, globalization and the growth of tourism, it has never been easier for people to connect with their faith than today.
Despite a dearth of written and/or tangible archaeological evidence, religious tourists undoubtedly existed even in ancient civilizations including Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Greek and Roman civilizations. From around 800 BCE to 500 CE, religious travelers, just like today, visited places that were of significant religious importance, such as the Philae temple complex in Egypt, the Oracle of Delphi or the Temple of Jupiter in Greek and Roman civilizations. Of course, there were many other religious destinations, but historical reductionism often focuses on the most important ones while sweeping aside others, such as the Temple of Asclepius, the Temple of Mithras, the Temple of Artemis or the Sanctuary of Anahita.
During the Middle Ages (5–15th centuries in Europe) and the subsequent Renaissance (15–16th centuries), increasingly institutionalized and centralized monotheistic religions emerged, such as Christianity and Islam. As a result, monotheistic religious sites such as Jerusalem, the Vatican and Makkah began to attract more and more pilgrims. It goes without saying that many other religious sites on other continents experienced similar tourism dynamics, including Fushimi Inari-taisha in Japan, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Shwedagon Pagoda in Myanmar, Teotihuacan and the Temple of the Sun in Latin America, Timbuktu and the Great Mosque of Djenné in Mali.
In the modern era, from the 15th century onwards, travel has mainly been popular among the upper classes. Later, in the period after World War II, the world's increasing interconnectedness made travel even more accessible to the masses. As a result, tourism grew exponentially in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and demand for religious tourism increased as well.
The numbers are astounding. UNWTO estimated that 300-330 million tourists visited the world's major religious sites a decade ago. According to Grand View Research, the religious tourism market was worth $254.3 billion globally in 2023 and is expected to reach $671.93 billion by 2030. Three of the most visited religious sites in the world are Makkah (Mecca) in Saudi Arabia, Vatican City and the city of Varanasi in India. In the next section, the article briefly presents some of the main characteristics of these destinations and discusses the challenges related to the current dynamics of religious tourism.
Makkah is the city where Muslims make pilgrimages during the Hajj and Umrah, and is a symbol of Muslim unity and brotherhood. In 2022, 9.4 million1 believers visited Makkah, while the Saudi government expects 50 million religious visitors by 20302. This is part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's 2030 vision, which aims to attract 150 million visitors3 to the country by the end of the decade. The plan also includes building 221,000 new hotel rooms4 in the cities of Makkah and Madinah by 2030 to accommodate the growing number of visitors.
The Hajj and Umrah (a less religious pilgrimage) bring in approximately $12 billion to Saudi Arabia’s economy every year5, accounting for about 7% of the country's total GDP. While this economic impact is significant for the local economy, the city of Makkah faces several challenges. As Bokhari (2021) notes, the high degree of economic dependence on the Hajj can make the city of Makkah quite vulnerable to global crises, as Covid has shown. In addition, Abonomi et al. (2022) noted that tourism causes environmental degradation because the city's waste management system cannot keep pace with the influx of pilgrims (2022) and will soon require better and faster solutions (Gören et al., 2022).
The most important religious destination for Christians is the Vatican, which became independent from the Kingdom of Italy in 1929. With tourism omnipresent in the holy city, it is interesting to note that the Vatican Museum alone welcomed seven million visitors in 2024, generating approximately $100 million6 in revenue from ticket sales and souvenirs. This is only a fragment of the billions of euros generated by the approximately 30 million tourists who visit the Vatican every year. The economic impact of religious tourism in the mini-state of 11 acres is significant for the city of Rome as a whole, especially in the hospitality industry. However, the growing number of tourists has also increased the cost of living. Moreover, the sale of sacrilegious trinkets, such as bobbleheads and magnets, is cited as a blight on the sanctity of the holy city. Therefore, one of the Vatican's greatest challenges is to strike a balance between the sacred and the profane, which tourism sometimes struggles to find.
Turning our attention to India, tourism, according to Minzar et al. (2024), faces significant challenges such as scams, security concerns, price gouging and personal hygiene issues. Varanasi is probably one of the oldest cities and religious sites in the world. It is the spiritual capital of India, especially in Hinduism as part of the end of life journey, with a population of about 4 million7. It is estimated that the annual number of visitors can reach 35 times the local population8, which poses substantial challenges for locals, tourism authorities and hospitality services in the city. There are serious challenges in accommodating the growing number of visitors given the lack of infrastructure development (e.g., transportation, waste management, security and personal hygiene).
Tourism in Varanasi, the Vatican and Makkah, the world's most visited holy sites, has not only recovered from the Covid crisis but has already surpassed 2019 figures, as shown by UN Tourism’s World Tourism Barometer. In parallel with general tourism dynamics, religious tourism is also experiencing an upswing. Already straining from a variety of challenges (environmental, infrastructure, societal and even cultural), holy sites will continue to welcome increasing numbers of tourists in the future. We can only hope that faith and business will find a harmonious coexistence to make the future of religious tourism as sustainable as it is fervent.