SELLING FAITH BASED, SPIRITUAL & PERSONAL JOURNEYS

Steve Crowhurst, CTC

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Selling Faith Based, Spiritual & Personal Journeys © 2013 Steve Crowhurst, SMP Training Co. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise whatsoever without written permission or authorization through payment of a Permission to Copy fee (except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews) . For information please contact SMP Training Co. [email protected] or call 250-738-0064 Protected by the Canadian Copyright Act. For general information on SMP publications and services please email: [email protected] Illustrations by Steve Crowhurst unless otherwise noted. Limit of liability/disclaimer of warranty: SMP Training Co., publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation, warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher and author is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising here from. The fact that an organisation or website is referred to in this work as a citation and / or potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information, the organisation or website may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

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CONTENTS

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Welcome and Introduction Facts, Figures & Faith Travel Trends The World View on Religiosity Religious Data, Graphs & Images Religions Around the World  What is Faith?  What is Spirituality?  What is a Pilgrimage?  What is a Personal Journey? The Local Pied Piper The Generic Faith Based Tour Establishing Yourself as a Faith Based Professional MARKETING IDEAS  Free Christian ClipArt  Pay a Subscription for Better Graphics  DIY: Creating Your Own Graphics Local Store Marketing  Notice Boards  Agency Window  Direct Mail  Postcards  Email, Website, Facebook  Social Media General  Marketing General Not Your Typical Tour Ideas 1. Afro American Tours 2. Angels, Auras & Demons 3. The Cathedrals, Churches, Mosques & Monasteries Tour 4. The Crusades, Cathars & Templars Tour 5. First Nations Tours 6. Gastronomic Pilgrimages – Cooking With Faith Tour 7. The Hidden Christians of Japan Tour 8. The Labrynths of the World Tour 9. The Religious Ancestry & Cemetery Tour 10. Religious Antiques Tour 11. Sifus, Sufis, Senseis & Swarmis Tour 12. The Spiritual & Special Places Tour 13. The Stained Glass Tour 14. The Symbols, Hieroglyphs & Icons Tour 15. The Visionary Sites Tour 16. The Women of Grace Tour Resources About the Author

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Welcome & Introduction Religion is a very personal thing. Some people love to talk about it, others prefer to keep their thoughts private, some are on a spiritual journey that has no religious basis and many are seeking the meaning of their specific life and planning a series of personal journeys and pilgrimages that are meaningful only to them. One thing everyone seems to share and that’s the need to travel to their “spot” where all things universal happen for them – and that’s the moment when they need your talents and expertise. This guide will give you an insight into creating, marketing and selling your own faith based and spiritual tours at the same time offering a custom FIT planning service for those seeking a path and personal journey that does not exist in a travel brochure. It is not necessary for you to belong to a specific faith or religion, attend church or have a personal journey planned of your own. However, if you did or do, then you`ll be much closer to knowing and understanding the needs and wants of your religious clients. If you are a very religious person then it might be that, for you, your entire focus is on developing tours that hold meaning specifically to you and the members of your religion. Your religion then becomes a niche. If your beliefs encompass all other religions, then all faiths of the world are open to you and choosing a niche could be very confusing as there are a few thousand religions and faiths world-wide. Your multifaith tours will no doubt be built on the religions located in and around your city. Spirituality is another niche to be explored. Sciences such as Yoga border on the spiritual. Practices that include meditation are the basis for tours to various Asian countries. Pilgrimages range from hiking ancient religious trails to following the path of Buddhist monks throughout Japan. Personal journeys can undertake many routes and have as many reasons for being planned and completed. Personal journeys are not always religious based however there can be a religious under tone, a faith and dedication to completing the journey so much so that the traveller is as close to a religious realization and rapture as the person dedicated to and practising one religion might be. There it is. A world of opportunity no matter which god or spirit you favour. This is also a business. There is money to be made as you assist your clients to find what they are looking for to quell their searching. Let’s get busy and get you started on your own journey as you study how to Sell Faith Based, Spiritual & Personal Journeys.

THE TRAVEL AGENT’S STORE COACHING PROGRAM To help you get the maximum benefit from your purchase The Travel Agent’s Store offers a free coaching session with the author of the e-Guide. The coaching sessions last for up to one-hour and are conducted via Skype. Once you have read through and studied this e-Guide jot down any questions, challenges you have, then email to [email protected] to arrange a coaching date and time.

Be sure to take advantage of this offer!

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Religious Data, Graphs & Images Maps and graphs that show where religions are located around the world can be found by using a search term such as “religions of the world” and then, if Google is your search engine of choice, click on Images and you will receive the screen shown below.

Be sure to check the year or when the information was sourced as many of the graphs and graphics are not current. Also check the copyright and creative commons information before you use them. If in doubt, contact the graphic designer, website, blogger and ask if you can use their artwork. Once you obtain the owner’s permission and they understand how you wish to use their imagery you’ll be free and clear of any legal battles. Make sure you credit and source the image to the creator, as in the designer. Click on the above image to view in real time - the hyperlink is already set.

Explore the data that has meaning to you and learn to read between the lines to extract additional information that might fuel a new opportunity. You will be reading about people who are religious, nonreligious, atheist, faithful, spiritual and so on. Each heading could be suggesting to you that a business opportunity exists in your area / community.

Image Bank

Start to amass your own collection of images that feature religious and spiritual scenes, scenery, icons etc., and you can start by walking around your own community and photographing churches, cemeteries, notice boards, sunsets & sunrises and continue this process when you travel on a FAM or personal vacation. If you are artistic or have friends who are, create your own religious artwork so that, like your photographs, you own the copyright. The image shown here is one I concocted out of wood and tin and then photographed and then using Elements, saved it as a poster. Photoshop Elements is not expensive at $69 on sale. Page 7

The Generic Faith Based Tour Generic may not quite be the word to use, however it’s important to note that the faith based itineraries have not changed too much beyond what has been avaiable for many years now. Naturally the religions and events and the places where those events happened are not going to change – however what can change is what we call the “mix” and then of course the reason to go. You should sell the generic tour and itineraries as they will attract the first time faith based traveller. The well travelled client who has completed a couple of the generic itineraries would be looking for something different. They still want to be connected to their faith or at least to have some connection to the religious genre when travelling. So what can you offer that’s different? Australia’s Faith in Trafalgar Developed as "a direct response to growing demand from Australian travellers", Trafalgar is now offering three new itineraries themed around religious history and Christianity. The tours are exclusive to the Australian market. The guided trips, based around Europe and the Middle East, feature such Christian classics as Vatican City, the Sistine Chapel, Jerusalem and Basilica in Lourdes, as well as some lesser known sites in Portugal, Spain and France. Globus Offers These Itineraries  California Missions  Christian Italy  England's Christian Heritage  Follow the Camino: Way of St. James  Marian Shrines  Medjugorje Extension  Mexico & Our Lady Guadalupe  Shrines of French Canada  Spain & Jewish Heritage  Turkey & the Seven Churches of Revelation

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

America Canada France Germany Greece

Your preferred suppliers do not have every country with faith based travel listed. They have the generic and most requested. Check with tourism offices of a country you are passionate about – they will help you design your faith based itineraries. P a g e 12

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

India Ireland Israel Italy Jordan

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Peru Poland Portugal Spain Turkey

Why not try India? It’s a country where faith & spirituality permeates the mind and the heart of its people. The followers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Islam & Christianity have built temples, mosques and churches which can be found in almost every part of the country. There are plenty of pilgrimage sites too where every year large numbers of people and probably from your area of the world, visit to learn and benefit from the philosophies and teachings of the religion that interests them.

IDEA #1: Afro American Tours If your heritage is Afro American and you live in America then you have a huge opportunity to create and promote tours that fall under each of our headings: faith based, religious, spiritual, pilgrimage and personal journey. If you are Afro American or any other race with an interest in the Afro American experience and live outside of America then you too can offer the following – just change the ideas to suite your own selling situation.

Outbound, Inbound & Around

There are three tour opportunities here and they open up yet another source of income. Typically your tours would be designed to escort your clients overseas to view religious locations akin to the faith of the membership, or your tour is for anyone and everyone to join and enjoy. The Afro American tour related to the topic of this guide presents the following: Outbound: The outbound tour would escort your Afro American clients to the same religious sites in Europe and the United Kingdom, to Mecca and wherever their faith is headquatered and where certain events happened. The tour to Africa presents a journey that will touch once again faith, religion, pilgrimage and most certainly a personal journey for your clients who know their slave heritage and from where their ancestors came from. Inbound: there are many people around the world who are interested in the Afro American experience and especially how religion factored into the lives of the men and women who were at first slaves and then became free. There are people around the world who love gospel singing who would travel to your area to tour the best choirs in the land. There is an interest in black religious leaders too. The inbound tour product then sells worldwide.

The term black church or AfricanAmerican church refers to Christian churches that minister to predominantly African-American congregations in the United States. While some black churches belong to predominantly African-American denominations, such as the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), many black churches are members of predominantly white denominations, such as the United Church of Christ which developed from the Congregational Church of New England. Most of the first black congregations and churches formed before 1800 were founded by free blacks - for example, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Petersburg, Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia. The oldest black Baptist church in Kentucky, and third oldest in the United States, was founded about 1790 by the slave Peter Durrett. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_church

Around: Here you can create tours of America that are based on the Afro American experience as it connects to all things religious. So many events and locations, museums, churches, places of worhship and more. For Afro American travel agents living in America the audience for your tours live right within your own city and state. Or, you could hire yourself out as a tour guide and sell your services to the worldwide travel community.

MAKE NOTES ABOUT WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO CREATE AND PROMOTE OUTBOUND INBOUND AROUND

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IDEA #2: Angels, Auras & Demons Ah ha! Yes this tour title is a play on the Tom Hanks movie Angels and Demons. So who believes in angels and which religion is more apt to do so than others? How about the non religious? Would they believe in angels? Over to the right I have captured a few comments from a UK survey about the very topic of believing in Angels. A Nielsen survey showed 63% of Australians believed in miracles and 51% in angels. In the United States, 79% of Americans believed in miracles, 68% in angels and demons. One in six Brits say they have personally experienced one. Check if a belief in angels survey has been conducted in your own neck of the woods. Chances are quite a few people do believe. Enough to make up an Angel Tour to your favourite religious destination. You may have noticed that angels appear in posters, art, jewellry and look below, by typing in guardian angel pins into Google, here’s the result – more than you can imagine. People buy these pins.

A survey in the UK found that: one in six people were convinced that they or someone they know had personally experienced one. The research found that even people with no religious affiliation still subscribe to the idea that unexplained forces affect people’s thoughts & actions. Only a quarter said they actively believed in angels. A smaller proportion said they had faith in the existence of “spirits”. Almost a quarter of those polled had turned to tarot card readings and one in 20 had had their “aura” read.

The Angel in Art Tour

This angel image is found in MS Office Clipart and you could use it to promote a tour of various art galleries and museums with collections featuring angels. Your tour could include a personal angel pin, or an angel t-shirt to attract your clients.

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… and here’s my aura image taken with the Kirlian camera.

But traditional approaches remain strong. While half the population do not believe that prayer can heal people, almost two in five do. And just over half said they turned to prayer at least occasionally.

IDEA #10: Religious Antiques Tour Here’s a tour that would combine visiting religious sites, churches, temples and as you tour from place to place, region to region the sightseeing includes a visit to well known stores and markets where they often have religious antiques for sale. At Greenwich Market in the UK, my wife’s sister from Japan who is Christian found a wonderful, small, wooden 17th century crucifix. It was black and worn, probably ebony and it had character. She was overjoyed and the price was about $50. Your clients would experience the same joy in addition to touring the sacred sites of wherever your tour is going. Your tour could be looking for all or focus on any one of the following:         

Bibles Coins Crucifixes Icons Illuminations Manuscripts Scripts Seals Stamps

Every country has it’s own antique markets, some will be over the top in terms of pricing, but small book shops in villages are sometimes the best places to visit and where a few very nice finds can be had. As mentioned, your tour could be an all out religious antiquity tour with sightseeing and services mixed in, or it could be focused and seeking one specific item. f you decide on the All-In then you will attract more clients who will want both the sightseeing and religious services component while they search for the antiques that interest them.

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About The Author Steve Crowhurst Travel trade keynote speaker, trainer, author & publisher. Steve entered the retail travel industry in 1965 and has worked from the front line to the executive floor, owned and operated his own travel agencies, travel trade training and consulting firms and has worked from a home office for over 20 years. In 2010 he published his 412 page book 273 “No Fluff - No Theory” Marketing Ideas for Travel Agents; in June 2011 he published the first digital issue of Selling Travel magazine, this was followed by Travel Agency Manager and Travel Trade Supplier magazines in early 2013. In October 2013 Steve published the first issue of IC Travel Agent a digital magazine targeting the home-based travel agent, ICs and OSRs. Steve is now turning all of his workshops and webinars into easy to read, street savvy eGuides. Check back often at www.thetravelagentsstore.com for new titles. If you would like Steve to speak at your conference or convention, deliver management level webinars or work with your executive team please email him directly: [email protected] A complete bio can be read here.

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