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Invite people. That is the whole answer, and it is what separates the groups that fill from the groups that do not.
Brochures sitting in the back of the church do not fill a pilgrimage. What fills a pilgrimage is a leader who is visibly excited about where he is taking his people, who says so, and who asks them directly to come. Everything below is in service of that. The timeline, the bulletin, the info meeting, the materials we send you, all of it exists to give you more chances to invite.
Start twelve months out if you can. Groups have come together in six, and time helps, but a leader who invites actively on a short runway will beat a leader who waits passively on a long one.
Most pilgrimages that fall short do not fail because of the destination or the price. They fail because the parish was informed about a trip rather than invited on one.
The difference is concrete:
Passive: the brochures are in the rack, the ad runs in the bulletin, the trip gets mentioned once at Mass.
Active: you tell people from the ambo why you personally want to stand in that place with them. You hand someone a brochure after Mass and say you would love for them to come. You call the six people you know would love it and have not signed up. You bring it up in conversation for a year.
The second version is more work, and it is the only version that reliably fills a group. Your parishioners are waiting to be asked. Most people who go on a pilgrimage go because someone specifically invited them, not because they saw a flyer.
And do not try to guess who will go. The people you assume cannot afford it or would not be interested are, repeatedly, the ones who sign up first. Invite widely and let people decide for themselves.
Before the work falls to you, know what arrives without you asking.
None of that is billed to you or your parish. If you need something we have not thought of, ask your account manager.
“Canterbury treats you like family! They handle everything, from creating exciting itineraries to managing calls, registrations, and payments.”
Patrick MadridCounting backward from departure.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| 12 months out | Proposal finalized. Webpage live, brochures in hand. First pulpit announcement, first bulletin ad, parish website and social media posts, first email to the parish list. |
| 9 to 10 months out | Host a short info meeting. Second announcement push. Ask the diocesan communications office to run it. |
| 6 months out | Weekly bulletin presence. Personal invitations to people who expressed interest but have not registered. This is where most of the group actually commits. |
| 3 months out | Final call framing. Announce the registration deadline and mean it. |
| Final payment date | Registration closes. |
If you are starting later than twelve months out, do not be discouraged. Compress the same sequence. Groups have come together in less time, and the parishes that succeed on a short runway are the ones that go loud immediately rather than easing into it.
Use the registration alerts to pace yourself. If you have turned on notifications in the Pilgrimage Portal, you will know within a day when signups stall. That silence is the signal to make calls, not to wait and see. Leaders who watch their own momentum and respond to it fill trips that leaders who check in quarterly do not.
Mass announcements. The single most effective channel, and the one most underused. Sixty seconds from the ambo after the closing prayer, from you personally, is worth more than a year of bulletin ads. Say where you are going, why it matters to you, what it costs, and where to sign up. Repeat it monthly.
The bulletin. Weekly if your bulletin will take it, or as often as it allows. Repetition is the mechanism. A parishioner needs to see a trip several times before it moves from interesting to possible.
The brochure rack and bulletin board. Put hard copies somewhere people pass without effort, and pin one to the board. People take a brochure home in a way they do not take a bulletin insert.
The parish website. Put the digital brochure on the front page with the registration link, and add a link to the pilgrimage page on canterburypilgrimages.com so people can read the full itinerary. Parishioners will check the website after they hear about it at Mass, and if the trip is not there they assume it is not real.
Parish social media. Post the brochure to Facebook and Instagram. Photos of the destination outperform text every time.
Email and text. Send the brochure and registration link to the parish email list, and the text list if you have one. This is the highest-converting channel most parishes own and the one they use least.
Diocesan communications. Worth asking, and it costs you nothing. Many dioceses keep a page on their website listing pilgrimages hosted by priests and parishes in the diocese, and getting added is usually a matter of sending the details. The diocesan magazine or newspaper will sometimes run it at no charge as well. Reach out to your diocesan communications office early, since print deadlines run well ahead of publication. Since pilgrimages are generally open to anyone, a diocesan listing reaches far past your own parish and can fill the second half of a group.
A simple meeting creates more registrations than any single announcement. Thirty minutes in the parish hall after a well-attended Mass, roughly nine months out.
An agenda that works:
Have brochures on the table and the registration link on a screen. Do not press for deposits in the room. People decide at the kitchen table, and pressure at a parish event costs you more than it gains.
Waiting. It is not close, and it takes two forms.
Waiting to start planning. A leader has the idea in January for a trip the following spring, then spends months thinking about it before calling anyone. By the time the itinerary is built and priced, half the promotion window is gone.
Waiting to start promoting. The proposal is finalized, the brochures arrive, and they sit in a box in the rectory because it feels early to announce something eleven months out. It is never too early. The parishioners who register first are the ones who become your best recruiters, and they can only do that if they know.
Both come from the same instinct, which is that there is plenty of time. There is, right up until there is not. A pilgrimage needs people to request vacation, arrange money, renew passports, and talk it over at home. Compress that and you are asking for a decision faster than most families make one.
If you are already later than you would like, do not be discouraged. Groups have come together in six months and less. But go loud immediately rather than easing into it, because the runway you have left is the only variable you still control.
It is worth telling your parish something true about the group they will be joining. Even on a parish pilgrimage, most pilgrims will not know most of the group when they board the plane. That is normal, and it is part of the thing. Our name comes from the pilgrimage Chaucer wrote about, a company of strangers who set out for Canterbury together and became something else along the way. Every group we take does the same. People come home with friendships they did not have when they left.
Your account manager sends your promotional materials once your proposal is finalized. Ask your account manager for a copy of our full promotion guide.
There is no such thing. Twelve months is ideal. People need time to arrange money and vacation, and the earliest registrations tend to become your best recruiters.
Common, and it works, but you need his support before you announce anything. Access to the ambo and the bulletin is the whole promotion plan. Bring him the itinerary before you bring him the request.
Better to point people to the registration page and let them decide at home. Anyone who signs up under social pressure in a parish hall tends to withdraw later.
Yes. Tell your account manager the size you need.
Log into the Pilgrimage Portal any time and download a current contact list for your group. You can also opt in to a text or email whenever a new pilgrim registers. Both are optional, and neither requires you to email anyone for an update.
Usually yes, and it is often how a group reaches its numbers. Friends, family in other states, and parishioners from neighboring parishes all travel on parish pilgrimages.
Promotion is the part of leading a pilgrimage that actually takes work, and it is the part that decides whether the trip happens. Everything else we handle. Tell us what you have in mind and we will build the proposal and the materials.