Andalusia, a benchmark for religious tourism that attracts 300 million travelers

Pilar Martínez

Málaga

Religious tourism now moves more than 300 million travelers worldwide, generating over 15 billion euros globally. These figures are from the report 'Religious Tourism in Spain. A Journey into a Transforming Segment', prepared by Observatur and presented at Andalusian Tourism, which notes that Andalusia is "one of the major benchmarks of the segment with a specific internationalization strategy and more than a hundred initiatives linked to cult tourism".

The General Director of Promotion and Development of Tourism and Hospitality, Gemma del Corral, participated in the presentation and pointed out that religious tourism "maintains deep roots linked to faith, tradition, and heritage, but is open to new ways of traveling, interpreting, and experiencing the territory". After revealing the key data from a study in collaboration with Tourism and Sports of Andalusia and IAG7 Travel, she explained that it is a broad phenomenon, where "travelers approach these destinations from spirituality and others do so from cultural or historical, artistic, anthropological, or heritage interest".

Del Corral reminded that heritage "is not an isolated element, but part of the everyday life of towns and their local identity" and advocated for "working sensitively to open these resources to visitors without distorting their meaning and organizing the offer without damaging what makes it unique and valuable". In this sense, she highlighted that Spain "has extraordinary wealth linked to religious tourism that is only partially organized as a tourist product. We have heritage, tradition, and there is demand, but we need to know how to connect, explain, and make resources accessible in an orderly manner," she specified.

The report presentation was attended by the director of Task ONE, José María Paredes; the CEO of the IAG7 group, Ángel Muñoz; and the technical coordinator of the study, Marcos Franco, who emphasized that it is no longer a niche segment, but "an opportunity with its own character and future possibilities". Moreover, they detailed that the study indicates that Spain "is on the world podium of religious tourism, alongside Rome and the Holy Land, and notes that Spaniards make between 17 and 20 million trips a year with some religious motivation". It is estimated to generate around 9% of the country's tourism GDP.

Regarding the traveler profile, they noted an evolution towards a more transversal visitor in terms of age and motivations. Thus, their average age is reduced, and their interests become more diverse, complementing faith with culture, heritage, or wellness. "However, there is a need in Spain to improve coordination among the different sector actors, church, destination administrations, and companies," they detailed, advocating for designing a common strategy, professionalization, and proper heritage management.

Among the lines of work they propose, they highlighted "designing a coordinated strategy under the brand Spain, identifying a structured and marketable offer, enhancing the quality of the narrative for the tourist experience, and designing specific products for new profiles". Additionally, they proposed deepening internationalization, applying technology without losing the essence of heritage, expanding public-private collaboration, reinforcing the sustainability of existing heritage, and incorporating emerging destinations to distribute activity across the territory.

• More topics
• Travel
• Tourism
• Costa del Sol
• Spain
• Andalusia