Increase of Asian pilgrims to Holy Land

(July 14,2010) Religious tourism to the Holy Land has hit a record level. In the first half of 2010, more than a million people visited holy sites in Israel, Palestine and Jordan. In June alone, 259,000 pilgrims made it the Holy Land according to “Travelujah,” a Protestant social network that monitors travel to the Holy Land. It recently reported that tourism to Israel has reached an all-time high with 1.6 million tourists, two-thirds of them Christian. This was a 39 per cent jump over the same period last year, it added.
Fr Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custodian of the Holy Land, told AsiaNews that he expected the numbers to rise in the coming months. He said “ The rise is due to pilgrims coming from Asia, in particular India. This is very important to local Christian families and communities,” he explained, as one of the most serious problems here is the lack of jobs. There are many Christians employed in tourism and more pilgrims means more jobs, he said, adding that in Bethlehem, five new hotels are under construction.