By Lindsay Danzell
Contributing Writer

In 1946, Walter Klein, a New Jersey native, stood among the Charleston graves. As he photographed the sea of etched names, something caught his attention.

The headstone in front of him read Hirsch. He was standing on the grave of his grandfather’s brother.

“Charleston’s not just a place to be or see, it is a return,” Klein added. “You come for the names. You’re not going to see the dead but you see the memories.”

Like many Jews in the United States, Klein came to Charleston to discover a piece of his heritage and experienced his faith through reviving the memories of his ancestors.

Klein is one of 600,000 Americans who travel annually for religious reasons, according to the World Tourism Organization.

With a vast religious heritage, Charleston contends in the $18 billion worldwide religious travel industry. Charleston founded and nurtured Reform Judaism, houses the only French Calvinist congregation in the United States and is the site of Central Baptist Church on Radcliffe Street, the first church founded and built by an entirely black congregation, according to the National Park Service.

“A lot of religious groups do like to visit a lot of the early sites,” said Kevin Wright, founder of Colorado-based World Religious Travel Association. “One of the attractions is heritage or historical travel.”

Religious travel is one of the fastest growing areas of tourism and, with few catering to the religious market, it remains one of the most underserved yet lucrative segments of the industry, he added.

“(Charleston) is not like Mecca, or Christians going to Jerusalem,” said John Crotts, director of the College of Charleston’s Hospitality and Tourism Management Department, explaining that religious pilgrimages to Charleston often occur in concordance with a discovery one’s heritage.

Travelers visiting Charleston for religious reasons are grouped with those visiting historical or heritage-related attractions, said Perrin Lawson, deputy director of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In summer 2006, the College of Charleston’s Hospitality and Tourism Management Department released a report on what visitors liked about Charleston that showed heritage attractions ranked fourth among visitors’ interests.

The Charleston CVB focuses on attracting religious groups to plan conferences in Charleston instead of trying to draw in individuals, and attends religious trade show yearly, learning how to attract and serve religious group travelers.

Although Charleston’s religious sites are a nice extra to visiting the area, a religious group’s decision on a destination usually focuses on space, Lawson said. Religious conferences require more rooms and meeting areas than business conferences, Lawson added.

In 2006, the convention center hosted eight large religious-oriented events. Each event brought in more than 480 people, with four drawing more than 2,000 per day.

Organizers ranged from the Senior Adult Celebration Ministry to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The largest convention group the area has drawn, religious or business, is the African Methodist Episcopal church, which draws nearly 5,000 people, said Crotts.

Lawson and Crotts were unable the estimate religious tourism’s impact on the local economy but Lawson said the industry is a large factor in the wealth of the tourism trade in Charleston.

“(Religious tourism) is a perfect niche for us,” Crotts said. “Could we do more (to attract religious visitors)? Absolutely.”

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