Religious tourism has been hit hard in the pandemic as sites close and pilgrimages are put on hold

Only a handful of tourists at the usually busy St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Vincenzo Pinto/AFP via Getty Images Faizan Ali, University of South Florida and Cihan Cobanoglu, University of South Florida Religious tourism is among the oldest forms of planned travel and to this day remains a huge industry. About 300 to 330 million tourists visit the world’s …

Muslims start the hajj by circling the Kaaba, the black, cube-shaped house of God. UmmSqueaky, CC BY-NC Ken Chitwood, University of Florida Around 1.7 million Muslims have gathered this year in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage – the hajj. The five-day pilgrimage is a once-in-a-lifetime obligation for all Muslims who have the physical …