Faith Tourism in Anatolia: The Pauline Routes and the Seven Churches of Revelation as a Contemporary Pilgrimage Corridor

Anatolia holds a dense concentration of early Christian sites, yet it is rarely treated as a single, coherent pilgrimage destination in the way that Jerusalem, Rome, or Santiago de Compostela are. This paper argues that two overlapping itineraries, the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul and the Seven Churches addressed in the Book of Revelation, together form a continuous pilgrimage corridor across modern Türkiye that is well suited to organised group travel. Drawing on the biblical text, the archaeological record, and the operational experience of a destination management company that runs faith-based itineraries in the region, the paper maps the corridor, assesses the current condition and accessibility of the principal sites, and analyses the logistical questions that shape a workable pilgrimage programme: routing, seasonality, guiding, transport, and the coordination of religious services on site. The study finds that the corridor is coherent geographically and historically but fragmented in how it is marketed and operated, and that its potential is limited less by the sites themselves than by the way itineraries are assembled around them. The paper concludes with a set of practical recommendations for tour operators, site managers, and destination bodies who wish to develop the Anatolian faith-tourism product without diluting its religious substance.