Spiritual tourism has travelers asking the big questions
RIO DE JANEIRO — Tourists from around the world prostrate themselves on the narrow terrace before the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue on the Corcovado Mountain overlooking Rio — not to meditate on the statue’s religious significance, but to pose for photographs and selfies.
But in a tiny chapel most of these visitors do not appear to notice on their way to the gift shops and snack bars, a handful of people kneel quietly and pray.
They’re among a fast-growing number of travelers doing more than lying on beaches and roaming through museums. They’re seeking spiritual encounters, from private healing ceremonies with a shaman in Peru and Sufi meditation sessions in India to monastery stays in northern Thailand and Christian pilgrimages to Fátima and Lourdes.
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Travel companies report that the number of people taking “faith-based” vacations is up as much as 164 percent in the last five years, even at a time when surveys show that the fastest-growing religious category in the United States is no religious affiliation at all, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
“In the absence of belonging to an organized religion, I still think there’s a universal desire for people to connect with deeper things,” said Ben Bowler, the Australian founder of Monk for a Month, which offers