|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Progression of Spiritual Tourism: A case of Himachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Paper Id :
17571 Submission Date :
2023-04-05 Acceptance Date :
2023-04-18 Publication Date :
2023-04-25
This is an open-access research paper/article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For verification of this paper, please visit on
http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/shinkhlala.php#8
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract |
The tourism industry is very important and has great relevance to boost the economic fabric of the state of Himachal Pradesh. According to a report published by “teri” the energy and resource Institute, it stated tourism industry accounts for 6.6% to the Gross State Domestic Product. So the tourism industry carries an additional responsibility of boosting State’s economy. The prospect of Spiritual Tourism is very crucial for Indian Scenario as it is one of major tourist sector in India. Many travelers who come to India carry an additional element of spirituality in their backdrop of minds to explore this side of travels for spirituality. The motive behind this article is to portray the possibilities of Spiritual Tourism in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keywords | Gross, Spiritual, Economy, Domestic. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduction |
It has been emerged in various reports that Since the Day the first case of Covid-19 was detected, the entire world in which we are living are facing its scars and as a consequence to the occurrence of pandemic the tourism and its allied industry have severely hit all across the globe. The condition of Lockdown, contagious nature of virus and the severity of infection with which it can spread to other people have forced governments to impose necessary restrictions of movements including cancellations of airways medium of travel. The harsh reality can be analyzed from the fact that It is not only The Virus of Covid-19 that has created catastrophe, but however it also carried a Passage for other complexities in form of Depression, Anxieties, Substance Abuse Problems. According to a report by India Today it furnishes that the cases od Depression, and Newly in trend Social Media Addiction have been have been considerably increased during the present time of COVID-19. The imposed curbs on movements, travel has led to the conditions of irritable behavior, obesity and Loss of focus among students. Also in a article published by economic times, it stated the hotel industries that bets on religious tourism have seen drastic drop in hotel bookings of about 80% across all important Pilgrimage sites and as a result the religious tourism business has severely affected in the ongoing Pandemic Times. But with the continuous and strenuous efforts of our appropriate governments, Medical Fraternity, Scientists, They have been successful in controlling the situation to large extents. With Set of strong intervention that includes Building of Vaccination, Capacity Building of Patients and their Caregivers, Well Designed creation of Hotspots to Prevent the further infection, the resultant is that slowly now the people are again gaining back their confidence to lead their normal life and also devise out their Plan of traveling post covid-19 that were halted due to Pandemic. Also one thing can be learned that every event of catastrophe also bring necessary lessons and newer opportunities. In Terms of boosting the Tourism Industry, the conditions of covid-19 has given the people to think out of the box and thereby looks for innovative form of tourism for the overall objective of spiritual Elevation. It has given a way for new set possibilities in form of Concept of Spiritual Tourism for overall well-being, Nature based theme of travel in tourism, Travel for Yoga, Travel for Healing of souls and thus India being blessed with the set of diversified culture and rich heritage has strong opportunity to looks for building strong policy formulation to outshine other tourism industries of the world Post Covid-19. In Recent Decade that has passed and also in present times the Buzzword of Spiritual Tourism has gained momentum in India. There has been a huge surplus in number of tourists who are seeking and making plans for Travel for seeking spirituality. To negate the effects of fast pace lifestyle which is accompanied by and full of competitions and other stress factors, it has given the persons an opportunity to think about deeper meanings of their life and as a consequence to that it resulted a Pragmatic shift of Person attitude towards spirituality. To be more precise the subject of Spiritual Tourism talks about living a richer experience in form of travel to define true meaning of life and hence it is not merely restricted to religious tourism. The concept of Spiritual Tourism at World level has gained a lot of Momentum but in India the concept is still in its infancy and hence it demands for channelized approach to upscale the revolution of Spiritualism in tourism industry of our country. In terms to the explanation to reveal the benefits of making plans for seeking spiritual travel, it can be summed up that it elevates your physical, mental, and emotional energies. Another positive implication of spiritual travel is that it is very helpful in balancing, improving and also maintaining your body, mind, and spirit. In a nutshell, it connects and gives a positive strength to your body, mind, and soul. To Summarize, the term spiritual tourism can be defined as traveling on pilgrimage with a purpose to obtain the element of enlightenment, coupled with value of entertainment, and education to gather positive set of cherish able experience with most important expressing your gratitude to God and thereby becoming a better person. Another important highlight that needs to be explained is to make a thin distinction between the terminology of Religious and spiritual tourism. When we are taking with the concept of Religious tourism, It is more directed towards seeking blessings from almighty and God with giving due respect on aspects of people’s religious faith and beliefs and also to fulfill ones religious obligations according to once own religion. However, the term Spiritual tourism has got much wider and broader perspective than religious tourism. Here the binding of specific practices of religion are not compulsory but however desirable. So hence seeing its vast scope the religious tourism becomes the subset of spiritual tourism in Mathematical terms. The emerging trend of Spiritual tourism in India is not barred to state and national level tourists but has strong Scope of attracting foreign tourists from other countries internationally. As a result it merits the foreign investment indirectly. So overall there is a sturdy need to encourage the prospects of Spiritual tourism. The State of Himachal Pradesh is rightfully known as "Devbhoomi" as it is defined as a land of God, Goddesses, and other places of holy affairs which include the places like Serene Monasteries. The State is also abbreviated by the name of Shaktipeeths because of presence of many temples. The state of Himachal Pradesh is not limited to temples but rather the state has presence of other religious places that includes Gurudwaras, Church, Buddhist Monasteries and Mosque. In Present times which is full of Competition, Fast paced life style that engulf the people with various form of Stress and Anxieties and thus at that atmosphere all one hopes for to look for a place through which the feeling of negativity can be minimised and hence once looks to lay down their heads to attain the blessings of God thereby experiencing divine pleasure. The State of Himachal Pradesh fits the criteria where a large flow of tourists come every year to seek the blissful experience. In Search for Religious tour, the state of Himachal Pradesh has emerged as most preferred location and they attain rejuvenating experience. The presence of Mighty Himalayas, Temples, Scenic beauty of rivers, Peaceful lifestyle all these factors makes the state of Himachal Pradesh as a place where tourists fulfill and meet their spiritual dimension of life.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Objective of study | This paper aims to fulfill the following purposes:
1. To study the motives of foreign tourists behind visiting the sacred state of Himachal Pradesh.
2. To study the Prospects of Spiritual Tourism in State of Himachal Pradesh.
3. To identify strategies that can boost the concept of Spiritual Tourism Model. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Review of Literature |
In an very informative article on the theme of Spiritual tourism by Halim, 2021 it has documented that in the present times the feeling of disgust from materialistic pleasures and thereby upcoming and scaling of non-materialistic aspect has gained momentum and targeted impulse of the people all across the world. This phenomenon has introduced a special theme in tourism industry and that can be called as concept of Spiritual Tourism. In order to fulfill the objective of explaining the conceptual model, the authors has used Spiritual Intelligence model and going through different articles content analysis was used to explain the different aspects of dimension extracted from various articles on them of spiritual tourism. The Findings of their study concluded that the emergence of the concept of Spiritual Tourism has great merit in order to enhance the aspect of spiritual development through different modes of religious and non-religious activities and experiences. Mukherjee, Bhattacharjee and Singha (2020), in their article on theme prospects of Religious and spiritual tourism in Indian context summarized the necessary strategies in order to boost the prospects of Spiritual Tourism in India. The authors also documented the Historical grassroots on religious tourism in India and stated that the Indian tourists have strong sentiments attached to the places of religious importance. With Significant explanations the authors has beautifully documented the importance of Shakipeeth, Jyotirlinga, and Importance of Scared Rivers along with their historical significance. Also the atricle Presented the importance dimensions that can help raising the Scope of Spiritual Tourism which includes following:
Garg, Misra, Gupta, Goel and Saleem (2021), by using Analytical hierarchical Process (AHP) through their study tried to gain insight of extracting motivating factors by tourists towards the cause of spiritual tourism in India. In order to elaborate on the findings, the authors designed Pair wise comparison based survey and thus employed quota sampling technique. Their well designed study based on necessary analysis pointed out that Spiritual fulfillment (SPF) which contain elements of Sacredness, forgiving, healing, exhibiting love and respect for God is very much prioritizing factor that influence decision making of towards initiating a spiritual journey. Destination Atmosphere (DA) stood out as second most Prioritized motivator factor with infusion of elements (Folk and customs, Historical purpose, cultural value, divinity of festivals that’s affects sub conscious domain of tourists. To further in line Service quality attributes (SQA) is another critical factors that’s forces tourists’ diversion towards initiating a spiritual journey. The SQA factors consider the aspects of attributes like transportation, accommodation, food habits and issue of security which are vital for any tourist who is going to some host land to derive pleasurable and soulful experience. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Methodology | The research methodology employed, included the use of secondary data, current papers on spiritual tourism and current books which formed the theoretical bases of this paper. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Analysis | Spiritual Tourism in Himachal Pradesh In this world of modernization where people are largely attracted by the materialistic pleasures and things to make their more comfortable, still in-spite of this in this present age which is referred to as “Kalyug” people are not happy and satisfied at heart. The evil forces of Kalyug in form of Lust, Anger, Profits, Emotional Attachments, Ego plays and influence with the minds of people and thereby people tends to lose their Patience and as a results remain depressed, Stressed, and equipped them with lots of confusion and anxieties. At that time in their lives the people tends to reverse their focus towards the blessings of something which we all know as Divine and bow down in front of them to attain much important Mental Piece. The state of Himachal Pradesh Which is Synonymous and Abbreviated as “Devbhomi” Becomes the first choice of tourists to cherish their ambitions in realizing their aspects of spirituality and to fulfill their religious Practices. The reason behind being called as State of Devbhoomi is due to Present of Large numbers of temples each carrying its own uniqueness and History that attracts tourists along with foreign tourists to realize their spiritual strengths. Not only mere the temples, the state of Himachal Pradesh is equipped with Churches, Buddhist Monasteries, Mosques which tends to attract the tourists of all Culture and religions to meet their spiritual side and along with the state carries a special status in carrying an epitome of Religious beliefs. Along with Devbhoomi, The State carries another meaning as if we segregate the word “Himachal= Him + Anchal” it clearly refers to a point of Presence of Snowy Mountains. The state of Himachal Pradesh has in all Twelve Districts and every district has some Particular strength in attracting tourists and offering them with delightful and Relaxing Experience. Popular Temples in State of Himachal Pradesh According to various sacred literatures available, it has documented that the state of Himachal Pradesh is abode of “Maa Durga” also referred to as “Shaktipeeths”. A Few such temples include the Shaktipeeths in Various districts of the State:
In Hinduism, the power of woman is considered as Creative force in the universe. In India the people offers prayers to Goddesses and worship them in various forms and through festivals like Navaratri, Durga Pooja, and Kali Pooja. The Subject of Shaktipeeths holds great relevance in the Indian Spiritual History and shows the Power of Maa Durga. The Festival of Navaratri holds a special place among all People who Practice Hindu Religion. In the festival of Navaratri Mother Durga is worshipped in Nine Forms and the celebrations goes on for a period of Nine Days. The following Shloka from the book “Durga Kavach” explains the nine forms of Maa Durga which includes Maa Shailputri, Maa Brahmacharini, Maa Chandraghanta, Maa Kushmanda, Maa Skandmata, Maa Katyanani, Maa Kalratri, Maa Mahagauri, Maa Sidhidatri. “प्रथमं शैलपुत्री च द्वितीयं ब्रह्मचारिणी। तृतीयं चन्द्रघण्टेति कूष्माण्डेति. चतुर्थकम्।। पंचमं स्कन्दमातेति षष्ठं कात्यायनीति च। सप्तमं कालरात्रीति.महागौरीति चाष्टमम्।। नवमं सिद्धिदात्री च नवदुर्गा: प्रकीर्तिता:। उक्तान्येतानि नामानि ब्रह्मणैव महात्मना” The Shloka is documented in text of Durga Kavach and is powerful tool to nullify the presence of negative emotion, state of vibration and thereby converting them with positive energies. The Durga kavach relaxes the soul and also acquires various health benefits. Behind the narrative of establishment of Shaktipeeth and on finding based on sacred texts, it states Mata Sati is wife of Lord Shiva and daughter of Daksha Prajapati. Since from period of Birth Maa Sati had great inclination and devotion towards worship for Lord Shankar who is worshipped in form of Shivlinga. However, her father doesn’t support her worship as he was devotee of Lord Vishnu. With her Sincerity and strenuous devotion she got the honour to be the wife of Lord Shankar or Shiva. King Daksha holded a Yajna in which he invited all god and goddesses. However The Raja Daksha performed a yagna, in the yagna he invited all the god and goddess except Shiva and Sati. She expressed her wish to attend the ceremony of yagna initiated by her father and asked for permission from Shiva to attend to the proceedings. Since King Daksha the father of Maa Sati didn’t invited them and thereby Lord Shiv tried his best to dissuade her from going to attend the Yagna Ceremony. However, under the influence of attached emotions from her family side sati went to the Yagna Festival in-spite from denial from Lord Shiv.hed When she reached the venue, it was found that every God and Goddesses Who were Present there were being given required space for sitting but there was no sitting arrangement that was being made for Lord Shiv and Maa Sati. Being uninvited Maa sati Presence in the ceremonial Spot was neglected and under the influence of false prides King Daksha Prajapati Humiliated Lord Shiva in front of Maa Sati. Maa Sati felt disrespected and she remembered her husband’s words to not to attend the Yagna festival. Witnessing the harsh comments and disrespect that was being made to Lord Shiva, it fumed the feelings of Maa Sati and the resultant was that Maa Sai immolated her physical body in the Yagna. All those dignitaries that were present over there were horrified by the incident. When the news of Maa Sati immolation reached to Kailasha where Lord Shiv resides, it raised the anger of Lord Shiva and he Directed Virbhadra to Destroy the Ceramony proceedings of Yagna Shiva eventually relented and Sati went to the yagna. Sati being an uninvited guest was not given any respect at the yagna. Daksha disrespect Shiva and Sati. Sati was unable to bear her father’s insults toward her husband, so she immolated herself in that yagna. Then Lord Shiva carried the mortal body on his shoulders and whole nature suffered destruction. To Make the situation controllable and normal Lord Vishnu from his weapon “Sudarshanchakra” after touching the feet of Maa Sati and Lord Shiva Dismantled the Mortal Body of Maa Sati and Places where Maa Sati Body Parts fell, took the form of Shaktipeeth which are worshipped by countless number of devotees of all religions all across the world. Popular Places to Visit District Wise: Himachal Pradesh
Source: Tourism Survey Himachal Pradesh The State of Himachal Pradesh has been gifted with nature’s precious gifts in form of appealing and scenic beauty that marks its presence in every corner of the state. The State is bestowed with mighty mountains and glaciers, forests, Charming and great set of rivers that originates from the state of Himachal Pradesh. The name lists prominent rivers Ravi, Beas and Chandrabhaga originates from Himalayan Highlands of Himachal Pradesh. So, with so much to offer the state has become successful in attracting large amount of tourists to enjoy a splendid experience. The state has large set of divine temples, Ancient Churches, Warm hearted Gurudwaras and Peaceful Monasteries where every year large number of tourists influenced and binded by Religious motives offers their Prayers to fulfill their religious obligations and thereby fulfills the larger goal of uplifting Spiritual Development. Suggestions to Boost Spiritual Tourism in India 1. Providing Safe environment to Visiting Tourist: It is of great relevance to introduce constructive measures to boost safety parameters in regards to visitor’s safety that are coming to foreign soil to cherish the spiritual dimension. According to Data of NCRB it reported 517 cases of crime against foreign tourists in year 2018. Such cases demoralize the confidence among visitors. Hence the agenda of Foreigners safety net and perspective should be of Paramount Importance. The appropriate government and agencies should implement well designed intervention strategies that may be prove to be useful at the times of crisis which may include taking help of specialized technology, Hiring well qualified tour supporters and guides, preparing cost effective packages of places which fulfill the spiritual aspects of foreign tourists. 2. Boosting the Practices of Ayurveda and Yoga: The Practices of Ayurveda and Yoga are important elements of Spiritual Tourism. The important initiatives are introduced by concerned agencies the uplift the concept of Yoga And Ayurveda into mainstream of tourists circle and attention. The Schemes like Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD), Swadesh Darshan Schemes focuses on rejuvenating and beautifying pilgrimage places. Also the advertisements and concept like “Yogi on track” has become already successful in promoting the concept of Ayurveda and Yoga and also also breaking false perceptions of beliefs that Yoga and Ayurveds is for older people. Promoting Spiritual Tourism: Incorporating the concept of Spirituality and merging it with tourism. Considering the fact of India’s rich and diversified culture across all demographic mapping, India has strong potential to lay strong foundations of introducing chapters on religious and spiritual tourism. According to a story Published in WARC it stated that Indian Travel Market is witnessing a double digit increase in hotel booking in cities which holds a religious connection. To substantiate with statistics the famous religious sites like Jaggannath Temple in Puri it witnessed (60%) increase in hotel booking, similarly other cities of Religious Importance like Varanasi, Shirdi, Amritsar Witnessed Same rising Trends in hotel bookings. No doubt the concerned agencies looking the affairs of boosting tourism model in our country has introduced various schemes of developing pilgrimage destinations and Concept of Offering specialized packages of religious tourism, Still a lot can be done by Introducing well-crafted intervention strategies to make India spiritual Tourism Hub all Across the World. Hence, it requires Strong need and will beautify and preservation of our all Heritage sites, Pilgrimage destinations. 3. Adding Research on issues of Religious and Spiritual Tourism: The Academic institutes offering higher education should introduce the specialized centers offering research on areas of spiritual tourism, religious model of tourism, cultural tourism, Medical Tourism. As India is known for its rich heritage so it offers the Researchers and teaching Fraternity to generate systematic literature on issues of relevant disciplines of Spirituality to expand the Scope of Spiritual Tourism in our Country. 4. Boosting Infrastructure: Strengthening Infrastructural Development in places of religious and spiritual sites is another critical factor to boost the spiritual model of our country. With adoption of well-designed marketing strategies, it will be helpful to explore the business perspective in the concerned area of spiritual tourism to fulfill the overall objective of revenue generating and Profit Making Industry. 5. Conceptual model for spiritual tourism: There is a need to bridge the theme of Spirituality with tourism to gain sufficient literature by Targeting the case based and conceptual model of research with the possibility of offering feasible solution to the problems encountered by the tourists who travel to seek spiritual tourism. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Conclusion |
The concept of spirituality and Religious Activities is major plus point for Tourists who come to seek holiday leisure in the state of Himachal Pradesh. Based on the assumption in deriving the true meaning of life, the intensions of tourists in Himachal Pradesh is not limited to visiting luxury hotel chains to rest but rather to explore the unexplored through camping in laps of nature, on the banks of rivers, visiting religious sites, forest walk to attain peace and thereby increasing their spiritual domains. Being a hilly state, the state of Himachal Pradesh has enormous prospects in initiating sustainable nature based tourist activities along with water sports and adventure tourism. No doubt since the inception of COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry in India and State of Himachal Pradesh has suffered losses but still with conditions getting normalized there is a need to revise the existing policies and framework with the inclusions of various Stakeholders comprised of Hoteliers, NGO’s, tour operators, Tourists visiting the state of Himachal Pradesh for the broader objective of designing new Prospects of tourism in the state post Covid-19. Every district of the state in Himachal Pradesh has got some strength which needs to targeted to upscale the tourists operations in the state. In recent times the tourists are crazy about adventurous activities like Paragliding, Trekking, Camping, Skiing, Water sports activities, Rock climbing. So these skill sets of activities must be emphasized and promoted to enhance and harness economic benefits. Also the dimension of including Yoga and Ayurveda should be included in popular tourist destinations to make the state Spiritual hub of the country. Proper action oriented research should be implemented to looks for weak spots that are hindering the tourist’s prospects in the state accordingly well devised strategies to boost the tourism model of the state. The state of Himachal Pradesh has also recognized various fairs which plays an important role in enhancing the theme of Social Integration and they also carry educational value. All the fairs carry rich cultural insights and are deeply valued by the people residing in the state. So there is a dire need to carry suitable research on this area and also to promote the concept of fairs among local and international tourists. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| References | 1.https://ncrb.gov.in/sites/default/files/crime_in_india_table_additional_table_chapter_ reports/Chapter%2025- 15.11.16_2015.pdf.
2. https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/spiritual-tourism-grows-strongly-in-india/en-gb/40500
3. https://artoflivingretreatcenter.org/blog/panchakarma-for-anxiety-depression-and-chronic-stress/
4.https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/covid-19-puts-curbs-on-religious-travel/articleshow/74742051.cms?from=mdr
5. https://hpgeneralstudies.com/river-system-himachal-pradesh/
6. https://himachaltourism.gov.in/types/spiritual/
7. https://www.artofliving.org/in-en/significance-and-lyrics-devi-kavacham
8.https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/destinations/government-to-promote-religious-tourism-through-yoga-ayurveda-and-new-schemes/as63365908.cms
9.https://hpforest.nic.in/files/Baseline%20study%20on%20existing%20impact%20of% 20tourism%20activities%20and%20recommendations%20for%20sustainable% 20tourism%20TERI.pdf
10. Banerjee, M. (2015). Spiritual tourism: A tool for socio-cultural and sustainable development. International Journal of Science and Research, 4(10), 1244-1249.
11. Sobihah Abdul Halim, M., Tatoglu, E., & Banu Mohamad Hanefar, S. (2021). A Review Of Spiritual Tourism: A Conceptual Model For Future Research. Tourism and hospitality management, 27(1), 119-141.
12. Mukherjee, S., Bhattacharjee, S., & Singha, S. (2020). Religious to Spiritual Tourism-An Era of Paradigm Shift in India. Available at SSRN 3546903.
13. Garg, A., Misra, P., Gupta, S., Goel, P., & Saleem, M. (2021). Prioritizing motivators influencing intentions to visit spiritual destinations in India: an application of analytical hierarchical process (AHP) approach. Journal of Tourism Futures. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
