New Israeli tourism intiative calls on Christian pilgrims to pedal the Nazareth - Jerusalem route

Monsignor Liberio Andreatta, head of the Vatican's pilgrimage organization, last week called upon the faithful to visit the Holy Land and build bridges of dialogue and peace.

This May, the Pope himself is scheduled to visit Israel, an event to which the local Tourism Ministry ascribes great importance. The last visit by a Pope in 2000 served as a catalyst for revival of the Israeli tourist industry, which had been beleaguered following the second intifada.

The Josp fest, held this year for the first time, is an exhibition of Catholic spiritual tour itineraries sponsored by the Vatican's official pilgrimage organization - the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, which is seen as the leading organizer of pilgrimages from in Italy to Israel. The exhibition, held January 14 - 18 at the new Rome Fairgrounds under the auspices of the Vatican and the Holy See, aimed to encourage believers to visit the three principal spiritual destinations of the Catholic religion, Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago De Compostela in Spain.

At the exhibition, the Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the Israeli Ministry of Tourism and El Al inaugurated a new sightseeing route aimed at younger pilgrims - a bike trip from Nazareth to Jerusalem. The route will include visits to holy sites combined with the experience of a bike trip. The tourism ministry depends on pilgrim tourism as a dependable sector, less influenced by economic and security crises.

Senior Vatican and Roman officials made a special trip to the Israeli pavilion and took time to view a promotional movie on the history of Jerusalem.

Exhibitions by Israeli tourism organizations in the pavilion presented programs and tours to sites of special interest to Christian tourists - Nazareth, the area of the Sea of Galilee and Jerusalem, generating a great deal of interest from visitors.

Two million Christian tourists, about half of these pilgrims, visited Israel in 2008 - double the number that visited in 2007.

Most pilgrims include not only Bethlehem as part of their itinerary, but the Western Wall, Christian sites in Jerusalem such as the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Via Delarosa, Mount of Olives and Capernaum.