A new pilgrimage venture called the "Journeys of the Spirit Festival" opens tomorrow (Thursday) in a drive to bring visitors to Rome as a world spiritual capital and not just the centre of Roman Catholicism.

The four-day fair, dubbed JOSP, is expected to draw tens of thousands to the Italian capital this week by celebrating spiritual journeys and pilgrimages not only to Rome but also to Tibet and the Holy Land, despite the presnt crisis in Gaza.

Organised by Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi (ORP), the pilgrimage agency of the Rome diocese, the fair will feature conferences, workshops, concerts, and films, with over 500 exhibitors from four continents.

The Christian aspects of the fair will focus on St Peter's Basilica in Rome, Lourdes in France, the shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the Via Francigena pilgrimage route and the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem.

Figures released by the World Trade Organization (WTO) say nearly four billion trips are made each year "for religious purposes", with religious tourism industry generating revenue of 18 billion dollars a year.

ORP said the festival would be a "laboratory of experiences tied to the world of pilgrimages and spirituality offering visitors the opportunity to live an experience tied to faith and religion thanks to a series of stimuli that include the arts as well as new technology."

The festival will be opened at the New Rome Fair Ground by Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the Vicar General of Rome and President of ORP, Monsignor Liberio Andreatta, the ORP Vice President, Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, Nicola Zingaretti, President of the Province of Rome and Piero Marrazzo, President of the Lazio Region.

Last year tourism in Rome dropped by five percent, a fall blamed on the global credit crunch and the strong Euro as well as the troubles of Alitalia - which was relaunched this week after privatisation, in partnership with Air France - and floods in the capital in December, when the Tiber nearly overflowed its banks.

The number of visitors to papal audiences has also dropped. Mr Alemanno's administration has announced plans for a Disney-style ancient Rome theme park to boost tourist numbers in Rome in future.