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PORT MATILDA, Pa . The walk down a hill at the St. Joseph Institute ends at the Forest Chapel, nestled in the woods between two streams. Only the sounds of chirping birds and a breeze blowing through leaves pierce the silence.
It's a serene setting where co-owner Michael Campbell hopes visitors experience a spiritual reawakening – regardless of whether one is seeking a religious retreat or a personal wellness break.
Frazzled Americans look to such destinations increasingly to decompress from their mile-a-minute lifestyles, redefining the concept of “spiritual travel.” State tourism gurus in Pennsylvania in recent years have produced literature promoting what they called “growing interest in spiritually based retreat destinations.”
In one sense, spiritual destinations may be one of the oldest forms of leisure travel. Pilgrims have traveled to the Holy Land or made the Hajj for centuries. The gravesites of saints in France and Spain have long been popular destinations for Christian travelers.
Places such as the St. Joseph Institute attract religious retreaters as well as travelers including Denice Capitani, who two years ago sought a getaway from workplace stress that affected her so much she suffered from anxiety attacks.
Capitani, 50, said she tried the institute after growing unhappy with higher-end spas closer to her Burlington, Conn., home.
She also found the tranquility she sought at Forest Chapel – though the experience had little to do with religion.
“My husband and I are far from religious … but it's a place you can go look at things to be grateful for what you are,” said Capitani, who has since switched jobs and is now a consumer advocate. “That's probably where I was more reflective than any other place in my life.”
There are no data to accurately track spiritual travel, though such journeys have grown in popularity since the 1950s and 1960s, said Dallen Timothy, associate professor of community resources and development at Arizona State University. He says spiritual tourism is “travel undertaken to either be enlightened or to demonstrate devotion.”
Church group travel remains strong in spite of the recession, said Brian Jewell, the editor of “Going on Faith,” a publication for faith-based travel planners. “Because of the importance that people place in their faith, they come up with the means or make other sacrifices to take that trip once or twice a year,” Jewell said.
He also said church groups tend to travel in larger numbers, allowing visitors to get better price discounts.
Feeling the downturn
Still, retreats feel the downturn. The St. Joseph Institute had attracted 2,000 to 3,000 visitors each year since opening in 2005. Campbell said business had slowed for about five months before picking up again this spring.
“Some folks who have seen us twice a year, they say, ‘Well, maybe we'll come back just once,'” he said.
Situated on 200 acres in rural central Pennsylvania, about 100-plus miles east of Pittsburgh, St. Joseph bills itself as a multifaceted wellness facility that also serves as a conference center. It offers massage and holistic studies and calls itself a “nationally recognized center for alternative and complementary medicine.”
Donna Snyder, 63, director of Christian education at a State College church, has visited St. Joseph with her church group and on her own.
“A nature vs. nurture kind of place … to find God and be found by him,” Snyder said about her personal visits.
Uniting East and West
Other Pennsylvania destinations fall into the spiritual travel category, with philosophies as varied as the locales they call home.
The Himalayan Institute, in Honesdale in the Poconos, boasts on its Web site that its mission is “to discover and embrace the sacred link – the spirit of human heritage that unites East and West, spirituality and science, and ancient wisdom and modern technology.”
Founded in 1971, the institute draws clients from around the world lured by programs in yoga, meditation, spirituality and holistic health.
The term spiritual travel “could have a different meaning for every person,” executive director Matthew Douzart said. “From the most superficial sense, it's destination locations where people would go to grow spiritually.”
