Religious to Spiritual Tourism - An Era of Paradigm Shift in India

Abstract

Though it has been practiced from ancient times but still the phenomena of Spiritual Tourism is very much complex in the present era as it has not been recognized as a type of separate tourism. The emergent popularity of various spiritual practices of India in the western context has stimulated the visitor from the other part of the world to visit the land of spiritualism (India) for enhancing their self-consciousness. Billions of tourist are crossing the international borders, as they have never traveled so much and have not communicated with these diverse expressions of spirituality, faith and culture. The interaction stimulated by such encounters has the potential to evoke deep spiritual experiences and trans-formative spiritual growth.

In a country like India where tourism is in the limelight for the religious pilgrims from many decades, but in the current scenario it is being observed that there is a huge migration of tourists from the western part of the world in terms of ‘Spiritual Tourism’.

This Paper emphasizes the emergence of spiritual tourism as there is a dearth of fundamental academic research and it is important to do further research & investigation in the subject. It has also explored the potential growth and suggested the promotional strategies for the development of the Tourism Industry in term of spiritual tourism in India.

Keywords: Spirituality, Tourism, Consciousness, Tourist, Spiritual Tourism

JEL Classification: I31, M10, Z12, Z32