(FMC) Tourism was up 25% in the Holy Land in 2013, announced the Israeli Ministry of Tourism. This was confirmed by the Christian Information Center run by the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land. What does that mean? It means there were 3.5 million visitors in 2013, the majority of whom were pilgrims. The majority of those were Christian and the majority of Christians were Catholic. Among the top three countries from which pilgrims visited the Holy Land were the United States, Russia and France respectively.
