Taking a spiritually oriented vacation

About 25 percent of American travelers are interested in taking a spiritually oriented vacation, a study last year by the U.S. Travel Industry Association showed. Increasingly, tour companies have begun offering religious cruises, package tours, pilgrimages and missionary travel.

The World Religious Travel Association, www.religioustravelassociation.com, a trade organization for the $18 billion-a-year faith travel industry, has an online directory to help religious travelers find the right tour company. Here are a few:

• Christian World Tours, (877) 840-0855, www.christianworldtours.com, is the North American source for trips with the Vatican-based Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi. These include tours of Rome, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Lourdes and other Marian shrines such as Fatima.

• Globus Religious Travel, (866) 313-2855, www.globusjourneys.com, is part of a large and established tour operator. Among next year’s faith-based tour packages are a 10-day trip to the Holy Land and an eight-day visit to shrines in southern Italy, including the Vatican and Assisi.

• Witte Travel & Tours, (800) 469-4883, www.wittetravel.com, specializes in arranging trips for missionaries and religious groups. Next year, the company will also offer a “Calvin 500 Commemorative Tour,” celebrating the religious reformer John Calvin in Paris; Strasbourg, France; and Geneva; and “Paul’s Missionary Journeys in Turkey.”