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Ushering in Religious Group Travel
Ushering in Religious Group Travel
| Willowbrook,
IL � February 2006 � Religious Group Travel, once a small niche in the
group travel industry, is going mainstream. To meet the demand of more
religious groups looking for tour itineraries and pricing designed specifically
for them, Leisure Group Travel
magazine has stepped up efforts to create programs and services to accommodate
the broadening faith-based travel market.
In a recent interview with USA Today, Jeffrey Gayduk, publisher of Leisure Group Travel magazine said, �Before Sept. 11, when we thought of the term �religious travel�, it was often a pilgrimage to validate faith, the central focus of the trip. Now, more churches are developing travel programs as a social outlet, a way to tie members closer together.� The U.S. Office of Travel & Tourism Industries has reported that overseas religious and pilgrimage travel attracts more than 600,000 American participants per year. Of the 450,000 churches in the USA about 50,000 now have some kind of travel program. That�s up an estimated 20% in the past five years. According to Gayduk, about 14% of the 20,130 subscribers of Leisure Group Travel organize group travel for the religious group market. That�s up sharply from just a few short years ago when religious group travel was a mere novelty in the industry. Through a dedicated direct marketing effort, Leisure Group Travel magazine (www.leisuregrouptravel.com) has reached out to the religious travel community and offered its print and online products and services, free of charge. �We understand the importance of reaching out to this growing segment and have made a major commitment to build upon our religious group travel database of subscribers,� stated Gayduk. �Thus far, results have been extremely impressive.� Premier
Tourism Marketing (www.premiertourismmarketing.com)
is a leading publisher of group travel magazines, websites and e-newsletters
for the industry. The firm is a four-time winner of the Mature Media Awards
for journalism excellence and a grand prize winner in the North American
Travel Journalists Association Awards.
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