MAIN PICTURE: Jehovah’s Witnesses during the 2014 International Convention at the National Sport Stadium in Harare. INSERTS: Part of the international delegates in Harare (Top) and Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi during a video interview at the JW headquarters in New York (Bottom).
RELIGIOUS tourism refers to when a person of a particular faith leaves the place of residence (individually or in groups) for a period of time (not more than six months) for religious related purposes. These include pilgrimage, missionary, leisure (fellowship), conventions, crusades, rallies, retreats, monastery and faith based camps.
During early years, only pilgrims engaged in this type of tourism. Due to widespread interest in visiting religious sites and events, non-religious people also embark on such trips.
Religious tourism used to apply to communities which have religious sites like Rome, Mecca or Jerusalem. Today, people travel from one community to another (locally and abroad) in the name of religion, especially for conventions, crusades and fellowship purposes.
According to United Nations World Tourism Organisation, a UN agency for promotion of universal tourism, religious tourism constitutes between 300 and 330 million out of the 1.14 billion tourists who tour world sites. That is 26% of world tourists are religious tourists contributing an estimated US$18 billion to the world GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of US$ 7.6 trillion.
The main benefit of promoting religious tourism is that it sails across a country’s bad publicity and/or state of the economy.
Religious tourists travel for a solo reason; to fulfil their spiritual desire and nothing else. The same tourists end up contributing immensely to the economy of the host country.
At an international perspective, the Middle East region’s tourism should have been suffering massively due to its political instability. Acts of terrorism are unpredictable and are carried out now and again. To the contrary, religious tourism is keeping people pouring into the “dangerous” region. Religious sites and monuments keep them flowing in.
In Africa, Nigeria has been smeared with bad publicity ranging from drug peddling to acts of terrorism. Despite that, tourists keep flowing into the country for religious tourism. It is reported that 60% of the tourists who head for Nigeria visit a self-professed prophet, TB Joshua.
In Zimbabwe, a lot of negative media hype has been going in the past decade and half. The country’s state of affairs and the economy have been classified as wanting. Interestingly, ZTA (Zimbabwe Tourism Authority) confirms that religious tourism is sailing across such pessimistic public relations.
According to Mrs Marvelous Sengwe, ZTA Area Manager for the Lowveld, religious tourism is the in thing.
Said Mrs Sengwe: “A lot of people are visiting different areas for spiritual reasons. Every year, Apostolic followers head for Mutare for convention at their Johane Marange shrine. Zionists and Anglicans throng their shrines at Defe in Gokwe and Bernard Mizeki in Marondera respectively.
“The wake of ‘prophets’ has contributed immensely on religious tourism. Sleepy towns like Chiredzi are receiving a fair share of regional tourists from South Africa and locals from Harare and Manicaland who are flowing for a popular self-proclaimed prophet in the town. The hospitality industry is getting more than 50% business due to the ever growing storm of these tourists during weekends.”
In an interview with The Manica Post in Chiredzi recently, ZTA’s Head of Planning and Investment Promotion, Mr Reason Machigere, weighed in to Mrs Sengwe’s words.
Said Mr Machigere: “The concept of religious tourism is really exciting. We made history last year. Over 92 000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, among them 3 500 international delegates from United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Kenya and Zambia, assembled in the National Sport Stadium for their Harare International Convention.
“They filled all our hotels. Transport and car rental operators were kept busy. You could feel that something positive was happening to our economy,” added Mr Machigere.
“Our loose calculations show that the 3 500 JW international delegates spent an average of US$1,500 per day. Some of them ended up staying in the country for up to two weeks after realising how hospitable we are. They visited our wildlife parks, conservancies and natural heritages like the Victoria Falls. Imagine how much our economy benefitted from religious tourism? We encourage all religious groups to support our cause,” concluded Mr Machigere.
Impressed by how religious tourism contributed positively to the country’s economy, the government paid a courtesy call at the JW headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
According to both Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi’s personal twitter post of September 10 last year and JW’s official website, jw.org, the minister visited them to officially thank the organisation for choosing Zimbabwe as an international convention destination.
Said Minister Mzembi in a video interview: “My president sends his message of gratitude and would like to see you back again to carry on with your work in the development of faith in the country.”
If religious tourists end up giving brisk business to the hospitality industry, wildlife parks, conservancies and natural heritage sites, how best can the tourism industry derive benefits from wildlife conservation? The question shall be answered in forthcoming article.