Spirituality: A Way to Realise Sustainable Tourism

When deliberating on the spiritual dimension of tourism, one would seek to understand how people seek meaning and life purpose themselves, their quest for meaning, and experiences of divine existence and connectedness as subjectively lived through their travel. In fact, tourism is closely linked to religion which has acted as a powerful motive for travel from the time of early pilgrimages to contemporary journeys to sacred places. Religious buildings, rituals, festivals and ceremonial events are important tourist attractions for those with a casual interest as well as more devout followers of the particular systems of belief represented. This feature of the tourism experience is arguably the reason for the popularity of spiritual tourism experiences among novices to spirituality-driven endeavors, as well as to those who wish to develop and deepen their ongoing transcendent engagement through and during travel. There are various reasons for travelling for spiritual growth, as opposed to the traditional notion of religious pilgrimage. However, relatively few scholars have explored the multitudinous relationships between religion, spirituality, and sustainable tourism, despite the pervasiveness of religious tourism and spiritual connections to place. A subject that has received only scant attention in the literature is the negative social and ecological impacts of religious (mass) tourism. Several authors have noted the negative impacts of religious tourism on the commercialization of places and artifacts that were once held as sacred locations. The commodification of religious symbols and the economic implications of selling them should become of increased interest to researchers as the world becomes more consumption-oriented.