Religious travel is certainly nothing new. In fact, for thousands of years, people of many religions have journeyed to faraway cities like Jerusalem and Mecca to honour certain religious commemorations, and to this day, they still do. What many of us may not realise, however, is how massive religious and spiritual travel are, although they are not quite the same thing, as I will soon explain. What set me off on this train of thought was the recent sad passing of Pope Francis, the much-revered and very popular late Catholic Church head who touched the lives of many. The influx of tourism into Rome and the Vatican to honour his passing and witness the election of a new Pontiff was quite staggering in its scale and certainly a reminder that travel for religious purposes is, and always has been, a major and highly lucrative form of travel. We tend to ignore religious and spiritual travel as one of the growing trends in travel, but nothing could be further from the truth.
I believe that since COVID-19, a time when many of us lost family or close friends unexpectedly and sometimes very suddenly, many turned their thoughts to their own mortality and began to look for deeper meaning and purpose in their lives. One way we could do this was to formulate bucket lists to seek out places that offered more tranquility and solitude in the future (hence the growing trends of Solo travel and nature-based tourism), and of course to go to places that affirmed our religious beliefs, or our interests in spiritual growth. I remember, when I visited a place in Jordan and went to the site in Mount Nebo where Moses was said to have been buried and he had been shown the Holy Land, standing there, I could actually see the river Jordan and the beautiful land that lies behind it, the ‘promised land’ as the Bible calls it. I felt emotional and fulfilled, as if what I had read about for so many years was finally affirmed for me, by my just being there.
SA’s spiritual connections
Unlike religious travel, which generally involves visiting places of worship or engaging in a specific faith’s traditions, spiritual travel focuses on personal growth and connection with the divine or nature, often not linked to any particular religious structure. It is in this area that I believe COVID brought so many people into exploring an entirely new form of travel, and South Africa, in fact, has some of the richest sources of such spiritual destinations. One immediately thinks of the world-renowned Cradle of Humankind in Gauteng, said to be the first place that man inhabited and where you can explore the history of humanity, but there are many more. Just some of these are Table Mountain in Cape Town, believed by many to be an “energy centre” with spiritual significance for the Khoikhoi people, eMakhosini Hills in KwaZulu-Natal which is home to sacred Zulu sites like Shaka’s grandfather’s homestead – and Isandlwana and Rourke’s Drift in KwaZulu-Natal, where historical battle sites revered by the Zulu people took place. These are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are significant religious sites too for every faith, scattered throughout the country.
A goldmine of spiritual and religious heritage
I wanted to write about this because it had prompted me to ask the question ‘’Are we fully exploring our rich heritage of spiritual sources and faith-based cultures in this wonderfully diverse country of ours?’’ Religious and spiritual travel can not be said to be an ‘emerging trend’ because they have been around for a long time, but they are an ever increasing form of travel and tourism globally, and I wonder if we are fully exploring the possibilities of growing this form of travel and tourism, to add to our already impressive wide range of offerings in this amazing country – already the most versatile travel destination in the world!
LIDIA FOLLI
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
