A report by CNBC said global "pilgrimage tourism" encompasses a multitude of businesses from tour operators and shrine administrators, to road-side souvenir stalls and pilgrims' hostels.

Religious travel generates at least $8 billion a year for shrine-centered economies and provides employment for thousands, the report said.

"Pilgrimage has always been commercial, as has religion," Manchester University professor Ian Reader told CNBC.
"The roots of tourism are in pilgrimage, as the first package tours in Europe were organized by Venetian merchants controlling the Mediterranean. They ran tours to the Christian Holy Land in medieval times."

Reader is an expert on the economics of pilgrimage. His book, "Pilgrimage in the Marketplace," will be published in 2013.

"The contributions of pilgrims to local economies cannot be underestimated," he said, adding that in the early 2000s, pilgrimage to San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy "brought the town in $56.8 million in revenue."

As with much in the spiritual world, measuring the financial impact of pilgrimage is more art than science, the report said.

It's not just spending by tourists generating economic activity. Host countries also benefit from tourist-related infrastructure projects.

The report said Saudi Arabia has just approved a development plan costing $16.5 billion to improve transport facilities — including a new rail line dubbed "Mecca Metro" — for the annual 2.5 million pilgrims that visit Mecca on Hajj, the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage duty for all able-bodies Muslims.

Sources

• NBC News
• Image: AFP/Getty Images/NBC