The religious tourism in Greece: current status and future development

Travel for religious purposes was essentially the first “leisure” travel recorded in various regions of the world, regardless of religion. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the importance of religious tourism, as a special form of tourism, in the tourist development of Greece, to identify its current status, to determine the possibilities that exist for its further development and to provide policy proposals for its sustainable growth. The methodological approach is based on a qualitative analysis, taking into account secondary data and research work. Our findings contribute to the Greek tourism literature by providing valuable insights for the Greek religious tourism, especially since the body of such academic research for Greece is not adequate.