Facebook users are now able to use new application to their pages integrating travel to the Holy Land with the Bible thanks to Travelujah.

A first-of-its-kind application that searches the scriptures and the Travelujah website, www.travelujah.com, is now available to Facebook users. The application yields both biblical and up-to-date references to specific destinations on a pilgrim’s planned journey.

“For anyone interested in traveling to the Holy Land, there’s no better way to plan your trip,” says Elisa Moed, CEO of Travelujah. “Our unique Bible search now connects people directly to the land of the Bible. Its an incredibly useful – and free – resource and planning tool for any traveler interested in the scriptures.”

The Travelujah application will connect the ancient Holy Land with modern day Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan in one search engine culling results from Bible verses, travel articles, expert and user blogs, images, videos and events culled from the Travelujah website.

Travelujah’s search of the Bible will bring the Bible to life by connecting it with the website’s resources. Now travelers and interested researchers can see how sites mentioned in the Bible have developed in modern days by accessing Travelujah’s vast resources on Holy Land sites, events, holy days, guesthouses and tours.

“This is the only search tool that provides relevant travel results directly associated with the  search,” Moed notes. “People can now plan their tours around important holy sites and literally travel in the footsteps of our forefathers, of Jesus, or any biblical character by performing this unique biblical search.”

Travelujah is the leading faith-based social network providing relevant content, travel information, reservations and social networking services for people interested in the Holy Land. Travelujah aims to aid others in fostering a deeper connection with their spirituality by making the Bible Land more accessible to Christians worldwide.

Check out the applicaiton here: http://apps.facebook.com/travelujah/index.php

More tourists from Catholic countries visited Israel in January 2010 than in the last two years during the same month, according to the Tourism Ministry.

The tourists themselves were not necessarily Catholic pilgrims, however. Father Athanasius Macora said Old City churches did not report any increase in masses or visitors during January and February. He is expecting a surge during March and April and urges pilgrims to visit the Holy Land any time of the year, not just for the holidays.

"We always encourage people to come because we have the holy places and the holy places help you understand the gospels. We call it ‘the fifth gospel,'" he told Travelujah, the only Christian social network focused on travel to the Holy Land. "Contact with the holy places helps you to visualize the gospels."

Some 6,700 tourists arrived to Israel from Italy in January 2010, an 81 percent increase over January 2009 while more than 3,600 came from Brazil, a 171 percent increase over the same period last year. Another 6,000 tourists arrived from Poland and 11,500 from France.

In 2009, the Tourism Ministry invested 10-million shekels ($2.6 million) to promote Israel in Catholic countries. A website launched in advance of the Papal visit has continued to attract visitors including 232,000 browsers in January.

The increase can partly be attributed to the visit of Pope Benedict XVI who made a Holy Land pilgrimage in May 2009. After his predecessor Pope John Paul II's visit to Israel in March 2000, some 750,000 Christian pilgrims followed in his footsteps by September of that year. Many in the tourism industry expected Benedict's visit to produce similar results.

In 2008, 3 million tourists visited Israel, 35 percent of them Catholic. In 2009, the number dropped to 29 percent of the 2.7 million tourists who visited Israel. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat hopes to increase the annual number of tourists from 3 million to 10 million.

In the last few months, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov visited Brazil, Argentina, Spain and Portugal to meet with Catholic leaders.

"Catholic tourism has great potential that has yet to be realized and, over the next few years, the Tourism Ministry will continue to promote the Israeli tourism product, stressing the religious, historical and archeological elements to this community," Misezhnikov said. "The Papal visit in May 2009 and its leverage via the implementation of focused marketing activities in these countries, proves that there is great demand for Israel's tourism product by the Catholic community around the world. We will continue to work to fulfill this potential."