Purpose -Spiritual tourism has recently been accepted as a growing segment of tourism in business and research circles. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a new dimension in Islamic marketing and investigates spiritual tourism as a new strategy for marketing Islam as a religion. Design/methodology/approach -In this exploratory research, convenient sampling was employed to select Muslim spiritual tourists and Islamic organisations arranging spiritual tourism in Australia. A total of 34 face-to-face interviews were conducted. Thematic analysis was used to identify factors relevant to the research themes regarding spiritual tourism and marketing Islam. Findings -Some religious organisations used religious gatherings and festivals as spiritual tourism products to market their religion -Islam. These organisations attracted Muslim and non-Muslim spiritual tourists to the Islamic places, gatherings, occasions, and festivals by promoting them as spiritual tourism products. Practical implications -The paper identifies spiritual tourism journeys and events that could be strategically used by religious organisations for marketing Islam. Social implications -This paper aims to build bridges for better understanding of Islam among the Australian public. The paper could be replicated to study the marketing of other religions in other geographical locations. Originality/value -The paper originates in recognising a genuinely new strategy of spiritual tourism that could be used more effectively for marketing Islam. A future quantitative study could be conducted to test the findings of this paper.

This paper explores and examines the interesting and important phenomenon of Hajj from a marketing strategy and ethnographic perspective. There has been little academic qualitative research from a marketing strategy perspective on Hajj (once a year Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca), examining the perceptions of Muslims going on this significant spiritual journey. This paper also attempts to contribute to the theory on spiritual tourism and journeys and the marketing of spiritual tourism, by focusing on Hajj as both an outstanding spiritual journey and a product/service. This paper is part of a wider research project conducted to study marketing strategies in spiritual tourism, and focuses on the outbound markets of Australia and Pakistan. The paper presents a qualitative study of the perceptions and attitudes of Muslims towards their journey of Hajj; the investigation is carried out from the perspective of two different and parallel cultures, i.e. Muslim Australians and Muslim Pakistanis. In order to gain a comparative perspective, this study concentrates on the attitudes of Pakistani Muslims residing in Pakistan and in Australia. The social surrounds of the two populations are further described within the contexts of East/West, individualism/collectivism, and free criticism/authority acceptance. The findings of the research were further dissected and analysed to segment the customers of Hajj and to propose more effective marketing strategies for Hajj in Australia and Pakistan. It was found that the use of modern marketing concepts and tools was very helpful in giving a better perspective of the enormous business aspects of Hajj. IntroductionThe Hajj is a very interesting and highly significant phenomenon for both Muslims and non-Muslims, both experientially for the former group but also academically for ethnography and marketing strategy scholars. A brief overview of the literature on the concept of spiritual tourism and journeys leads this study to a useful operational definition of spiritual tourism. The religious practice of Hajj is discussed from the literature (where available), and then Hajj is analysed with reference to this given definition of spiritual tourism. The theoretical focus of this paper lies in the discussion of the philosophy of Hajj as a spiritual journey and the expectations and experiences described by two groups notably similar as well as different.Significant literature is available on the non-business details of Hajj, its religious importance and the process and rituals involved. Some researchers have worked over the years, based on their personal understanding and experiences, and from a more sociological perspective, on the difference between the processes and logistics of Hajj.

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In the 21st century, tourism has become a popular economic development strategy adopted by developing countries. Among various facets of tourism, heritage tourism has been observed as the economically and commercially most viable option. Since countries with limited investment resources could invite foreign tourists to enjoy their heritage culture, history, arts, and music. However, heritage tourism in India and Pakistan has been observed as the neglected domain. The reasons for ignoring heritage tourism in India and Pakistan will be analyzed in this chapter with the purpose to identify challenges to preserve, conserve, develop, and promote built heritage tourism. Innovative transformation is suggested as the approach to develop, rejuvenate, and transform the tangible and intangible heritage tourism in India and Pakistan for reuse, social and economic prosperity of locals living around heritage sites, as well as to provide transformational experience to visitors.

This chapter explores the emergence and development of Halal branded hospitals and medical facilities as a product of Medical Tourism for Muslim patients around the world and in India. Halal tourism is a sub-category of spiritual tourism, where one has to abide by the Sharia law to satisfy Muslim customers. The main objective of the chapter is to focus on a niche category of halal medical tourism, where Sharia rules are followed to attract the medical tourist mainly from Islamic countries. This chapter also proposes a typology of Muslim medical tourist's cultural sensitivities and recommends branding and certifying Halal Medical Tourism hospitals, healthcare facilities, pharmaceuticals, products, and services to attract Muslim patients, and provides challenges and opportunities with future research directions. The case studied in this chapter is of the Global Health City, the first Halal Certified Medical Hospital facility in Chennai, India. It presents a model for halal branding of Indian Medical Tourism based on the halal decision-making paradigm for Muslim customers designed by Wilson and Liu (2010). The model presented here indicates attitudes of being rational or emotional and elements reflecting affective and cognitive feelings for Muslim patients seeking halal treatment in halal hospitals.

This chapter appreciates the growing significance of heritage tourism, even in a place well-known as a fun-based modern destination. This study is based on an exploratory research which used qualitative research to study issues related to the promotion of heritage tourism in the United Arab Emirates. The purpose of this chapter was to identify challenges faced by the public and private tourism organizers for heritage tourism in the country. This original research employed the Delphi techniques and interviewed renowned heritage and cultural experts. Critical realism ontology was applied to analyze the qualitative data where themes emerged as the key challenges. Five themes emerged from the research that could be replicated to study heritage tourism challenges in other countries. A subsequent study to identify and assess solutions and strategies for these challenges is the suggested future study for this chapter.

This conceptual paper presents an innovative marketing framework to recognise Islamic spiritual tourism as a significant type of Islamic tourism. The presentation of the theoretical conceptualisation of Islamic spiritual tourism is based on the study of literature and observations of innovative tourism business practices. The literature on Islamic, spiritual and innovative tourism marketing was reviewed. The innovative marketing framework suggests that Islamic spiritual tourism is a subset of Islamic and halal tourism, while pilgrimage and Muslim religious tourism are its subsets. This unique study emphasises upon the acceptance of the market for Islamic spiritual tourism that is a combination of religious travels among Muslims such as Hajj, Umrah, Rihla and Ziyara. Tourism marketers could focus on this niche market of Muslim spiritual tourists to design their innovative marketing strategies. An empirical study of attitudes and behaviour of Muslims engaged in Islamic spiritual tourism is a palpable future research direction.

In the 21st century, there is an utmost need for peace, economic progress, and prosperity around the world, especially since the September 11 tragedy, the two Gulf wars, Arab Spring, and the fear of terrorism in the name of religion spread across the globe. Countries have to learn from past mistakes and avoid conflicts and war, which impact common people, destroy lives and ancient heritage, spiritual sites, and civilizations. Spiritual tourism development and education can be used as a vehicle to campaign and market peace between nations, cultures, and people from diverse racial and spiritual orientations. Countries with populations belonging to various religious minorities in particular should include spiritual tourism education at school and university to promote peace and unity in diversity.