A travel website predicts that pilgrimages will be one of the biggest travel trends in 2023. In an extensive research, Booking.com found that pilgrimages are becoming popular among tourists with almost half (44%) wanting to go on meditation or mindfulness retreats.
Christians in the U.K. hope this information could be a new way of encouraging more people to find God. Andrea Campanale, a licensed lay pioneer in Southwark Diocese who offers pilgrimage tours, also noticed the increase of programs on pilgrimages. “It’s not just people of faith who want to engage in that, but people who are interested in spirituality, perhaps at a transition point in their lives, and they’re looking for some sense of guidance or direction,” she said.
I also think there is a real hunger for meaning and a sense of identity. —Andrea Campanale, lay pioneer in Southwark Diocese
She explained, “I also think there is a real hunger for meaning and a sense of identity. We are post Brexit and Covid and I think we are really struggling with a sense of who we are.”
Campanale’s ‘Spiritual Practices Pilgrimages’ provides tours that explore ancient practices by visiting sacred sites in the British Isles. The program will be launched on March 7 and its first pilgrimage is s