Home based travel agents are benefiting from an apparent boom in religious and spiritually focused travel. Consider these numbers:
According to the U.S. Office of Travel & Tourism Industries, the more than 600,000 overseas, faith-based trips taken by Americans in 2004 accounted for 2.2% of all U.S. overseas travel.
American Church Lists, a market research company, calculates that church travel programs increased 20% between 2000 and 2004.
Premier Tourism Marketing recently reported that of the 400,000 religious establishments in the U.S., 50,000 now offer travel programs.
The 2004 Religious Conference Management Association reported that religious meetings and conventions in 2004 increased 8.4% over 2003, with 14.2 million attendees, 16,214 meetings and 3,797 conventions and conferences.
Globus, one of the world’s oldest and largest group tour operators, faith-based travel has been something of a recent epiphany. The company entered the market with eight programs in the 2004-2005 season. In its second year, it more than doubled its religious offerings, to 20 programs in 20 countries.
Globus also offers agents marketing kits that Schields terms “religious travel in a box” -- training programs and turn-key business plans that help agents set performance objectives and find and approach prospects. They even include templates for letters to priests, pastors or rabbis. To become a home based travel agent go to www.homebasedtravelagents.org
Destinations are important to different denominations, such as western England for Methodists, Scotland for Presbyterians, Germany for Lutherans.
“There is a certain terminology that is appropriate for each group,” said Wright. “We provide a list of lingo and buzzwords, so when a travel agent is out there marketing, they know what words to use. When we talk to the Catholic market, we use the word ‘community.’ With Protestants, we say ‘fellowship.’ “
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