Is Spiritual Tourism a Peace Vehicle for Social Transformation and Economic Prosperity in India and Pakistan?

Abstract

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.

Meditation Tourism, Buddhist Philosophy in Practice: A Case Study of Lumbini, Nepal

“…Spiritual tourism is a new transformative approach of travelling with a core motive of experiencing peace of mind. "Spiritual tourism is defi ned as an act of travelling domestically or overseas to visit spiritual places such as mosques, churches and temples and natural environments such as forests, oceans, lake, spiritual gardens, wildlife parks for birds and animals, botanical gardens, caves, and rocks for spiritual reasons: to fulfi ll the need for being grateful to almighty, forgiveness and inner peace" (Haq & Medhekar, 2019). Other scholars try to identify spiritual tourists diff erently: "spiritual tourists'' are those who engage in religious practice or have spiritual experience in a religious context'' (Norman, 2004).…”

The Rise of Spiritual Tourism in South Asia as Business Internationalization

“…Buddhist religious and spiritual tourists visit various holy sites in Sri Lanka, Nepal, and India, and these sites attract millions of devotees from around the world (Gupta, 1999;Rinschede, 1992). Several religious sites linked to Buddhist relics and spiritual institutions are also found in Pakistan (Haq & Medhekar, 2019).…”

“…Sufism is considered as the mysterious and mystical core of Islam, it advocates meditation as a means of clarifying the mind -'fitra' (Smith, 2007, p. 478). There is an overwhelming amount of literature on Sufism with some recent works based on a growing interest in both Islam and Sufism (Haq & Medhekar, 2019).…”

“…Pakistan accommodates spiritual and sacred sites related to various religious traditions embracing Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Sikhism (Baloch & Rehman, 2015;Haq & Medhekar, 2019;Singh & Narang, 2004;Wannell & Hasan, 2008). Many churches and Christian monasteries are found in Pakistan constructed some centuries ago when the English were ruling over the united India.…”

“…They defined this concept as the "process in which the firms gradually increase their international involvement" (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977, p. 23). Among South Asian countries, India and Pakistan could be considered as the forerunners of internationalization of trade in services, but predominantly as exporters of service talent rather than exploiting its inherent expertise domestically (Haq & Medhekar, 2019). The business internationalization as an incremental process is suggested for services since the international association concludes in a sequential method to market expansion among various countries (Kahiya, 2020;Johanson & Vahlne, 1977).…”