With lost pensions and savings and getting caught up in “a modern world without God,” Cross said some people are looking to return to “the source of love that is God.”

The cost of a 10-day tour with Cross’ Catholic Holy Land Pilgrimage has gone up by $1,100 to about $3,500 due to increased costs of fuel, hotel and airline rates, and a falling American dollar. But Cross said that hasn’t deterred some Catholics from planning a trip to Israel. A 50-year-old worker from Detroit, who was laid off, still plans to go in October because he wanted to be “connected to God,” Cross said. And a 62-year-old retired lawyer from California who lost money on AIG shares is on the sold-out, end-of-March tour with 47 other travellers.

Kitty McGilly, pilgrimage director for Toronto-based Faith Journeys, is also seeing an increase in spiritual travel. Compared to last year’s eight groups of about 350 people, this year six groups of close to 300 people have taken a pilgrimage, with six more groups scheduled.

Many of those who travel with McGilly are retired, have not lost money in the economic crash and see a spiritual need to travel to the Holy Land, she said.

“Maybe that’s what’s needed at this time, when everything else seems to be doom and gloom,” McGilly said.

Indus Travels Inc. in British Columbia is hosting “Pope Benedict XVI’s Holy Land Tour” in May. Business manager Raju Banarjee said the trip targets a niche market of spiritually minded individuals. Although religious tours aren’t the company’s top sellers, she said they have been successful in recent years, especially with retirement-age travellers.

Meanwhile, spiritual travel related to other traditions appears to also be on the rise. Helen Tomei, owner of Vancouver-based Sacred Earth Journeys, said there has been an annual increase of about 10 to 15 per cent of travellers over the past six years taking tours related to Earth-based spirituality, exploring the Incas in Peru and Mexico’s Mayan traditions. Each year, about 200 to 300 people sign up for these tours, Tomei said.

The main attraction has been an interest in what these traditions are “telling us about these times,” she said. People are becoming more interested in their personal growth and the “inner journey,” Tomei said.

According to Cross, some pilgrims who have taken his “conservative, traditional pilgrimage” have returned with a renewed commitment to their spiritual life, including attending daily Mass.

“This trip is not like a cruise. On a cruise, you will forget about it unless you took the pictures out,” he said. “But to go to the Holy Land, you will remember this for the rest of your life. When they hear the Scriptures every day, (when) they go to Mass and hear the Gospel, they will be reminded of the places they went to.”