Preview

Sustainable Tourism: Learning from Indian Religious Traditions

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3644 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sustainable Tourism: Learning from Indian Religious Traditions
Sustainable tourism: learning from Indian religious traditions

Vasanti Gupta Director of Insight India, Headington, Oxford, UK

Keywords
Ethics, Green issues, India, Tourism

The context
Pilgrimage to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion is an age-old tradition, followed by religions all over the world. The fact that it is often carried out on foot, is an older form and has many religious connotations, has made people overlook it as a form of tourism. Apart from the devotional aspect, looked at from the broader point of view, pilgrimage involves, sightseeing, travelling, visiting different places and, in some cases, voyaging by air or sea etc. and buying the local memorabilia, almost everything a tourist does. If a difference does exist it is in the fact that, despite having been undertaken for centuries, it has not had the same negative environmental, cultural and social ramifications that tourism has shown itself capable of in the last 30 years alone. Also, as in other types of tourism, tourist traffic to a destination can be created by changes in access or demands for new activities. Today the Buddhist and Jain shrines in remote parts of India have seen huge increases in visits as they become more accessible. Until the 1960s hardly anybody visited Lumbini (birthplace of Buddha) near the Chitwan Royal National Park, in Nepal near the Indian border. A renewed interest in Buddhism all over the world, easy road access to Lumbini and the added attraction of the National Park, which has been declared a world heritage site, has made all the difference. Lumbini is now a popular destination. Similarly, in the past, the major pilgrimage centres did not just provide food and accommodation and spiritual succour for the pilgrims. They were great centres of art and culture and, in the case of major centres, still are. The Himalayan region of Uttar Pradesh in India has developed a special Pahari cuisine, school of music, Pahari school of miniature painting,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Tourism industry is one of the largest industry of the world in the 21st century, before the oil industry and the automobile industry. It is a vital sector for a lot of countries as it generates jobs and wealth. Nevertheless, Tourism can also engender environmental, social, and cultural degradations as more and more people travel all around the world. There was roughly 935 million of tourists in 2010, and there will be 1.6 billion tourists in 2020 according to the World Tourism Organization. This enormous flow of tourists has undoubtedly a lot of impacts on the environment, on the local populations or on the economy. Furthermore, the global population is increasingly growing and the question of resources available is crucial and has become a matter of global concern when development occurs in a time of globalization. Because tourism keeps increasing, this is necessary to find ways to make tourism more sustainable.…

    • 1517 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sustainable Tourism

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages

    2. Which one of the following observations about the destination life cycle model is not accurate?…

    • 660 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A Spiritual Journey

    • 1832 Words
    • 8 Pages

    It is a great feeling going to a place where it’s a huge matter in one’s life. “Revisiting Sacred Ground” N. Scott Momaday had made a pilgrimage which his Kiowa ancestors. Momaday has said,” There are certain villages, and towns mountains and plains that, having seen them, walked in them, lived in them, even for a day, we keep forever in the mind’s eye.” Just like how Momaday relived his ancestor’s trails, I had a chance as well. I was lucky enough to be able to go on such a sacred journey that people would pay in thousands of dollars. The pilgrimage I would like to talk about is the one I took to a sacred city in India called Badrinath. I follow Hinduism, and in Hinduism there is a saying/belief that if we go on this enriching, and spiritual journey, we will go to heaven after we pass. I have a guru, like a living god, who I listen to and look up to. He took me on this spiritual journey.…

    • 1832 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Yeti Trail Business Plan

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Warm greetings from Yeti Trail Adventure and its team. We are based in Kathmandu offer tour and hiking services in Nepal, Bhutan, India, and Tibet. We are a boutique hiking company spent almost 4 years experienced as a local tour operator. We have been able to maintain the high level of performance. All Asian countries, including Nepal, is famous for the Himalayan paradise with 1300 mountain peaks, including ten summits above 8000 meters. The top of the world Mount Everest (8848 m) and the deepest gorge (6967 m), Kali Gandaki Gorge, the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama (Lumbini) and the living Goddess (Kumari) are worth to meet before died.…

    • 313 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    religious commodification

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Every year, millions of people travel across the globe for different intentions. It may be for business, recreation, education, health, and faith. Traveling to religious sites has been accounted for in the bible and can been considered as one of the oldest reasons for travel and is a vast growing sector even today. Tourist visit cultural or religious site for that matter for a variety of reasons (Ho & McKercher, 2006). According to Levi and Kocher, the purpose of visiting sacred sites may from the purposeful tourist who is seeking authentic cultural experiences to the casual tourist who may be visiting a religious site because it is part of their tour.…

    • 319 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sherpas of Nepal

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages

    ‘Tourism is an extremely powerful force in the process of globalisation. It can bring improved standards of living with few alternative opportunities; however, it can also damage the environment, disrupt communities and harm individuals’ (Task Sheet, 2013). A clear example of this statement is the Sherpas of Nepal. The Sherpas are an ethnic group of devout Muslims living in the Peaks of the Himalaya Mountains in Nepal. They are of a Tibetan descent, and moved from Tibet 450 years ago. Sherpa translates to ‘easterner’, and references their origins to Kham (Eastern Tibet). Their population is roughly 50000 people who accommodate the solu-khumbu and khumbu regions of the Himalayas, south of Mount Everest (refer to power point). Due to the extreme slopes of the location, mechanical transport is not an option, so Sherpas walk everywhere. It takes some children up to 2 hours of intense walking just to walk to school. (Britannica, 2013) Sherpas practise Buddhism and belong to the oldest sect of the religion: nyingmapa. Their religion teaches mysticism (believing in many Gods; similar to mythology) and practise shamanistic rituals. They believe that their many Gods live within the mountains surrounding, and thus postulate the mountains sacred. (everyculture, 2007)…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Safe Tourism

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages

    If one were to go by the events of India, there are statistics to suggest tourism is beginning to flourish in India with no less than 650 million domestic travelers having traveled in India last year. Tourist destinations have been peaceful and incident free. The largest gathering of pilgrims concluded peacefully at Rishikesh in early 2010 with more than 100 million visitors coming to the twin cities of Rishikesh and Haridwar for the sacred dip in the River Ganga. Some districts of India are sadly out of bounds for tourists because of a variety of reasons ranging from existential to mismanagement of local politics. By and large, the seventh largest country has…

    • 733 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tourism in India

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The government notification issued in October 5, 1993 has prohibited from employing children in slaughter house/abattoirs, printing, tourism sector, cashew nut scaling and processing and soldering.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    sustainable tourism

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages

    ST AND FUNCTIONAL MANAGEMENT 5.1 Marketing Management The potential role of marketing techniques in sustainable tourism  Seeking to understand the customers in terms of their motivations and determinants  Need to scan its business environment for relevant data that might determine the stances it takes towards sustainable tourism The potential role of marketing techniques in sustainable tourism (cont.) The scanning should involve:  1.…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    sustainable tourism

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The industry of tourism develops every year. People find out tourism extremely popular, it helps to develop the positions in every country, but it has some disadvantages. It is obvious that tourism can be different and on of it the sustainable tourism. Many people believe that sustainable tourism (or ecotourism) should not be advertised as it is just a marketing ploy. However, from my point of view, sustainable tourism is an essential thing of every country and government should include it in the main spheres of the people’s lives.…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sustainable Tourism

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Kaikoura is a small community located on the mountainous coast of South Island of New Zealand .The WWK is new Zealand only year round whale watching operator. It was starts by four families in 1987 in an effort to harness unique and rare tourist attraction- the sperm Whale. The WWK was created to create a stable and self-sustaining economic base for Maori Tribe. Revenue was generated through the whale watching ticket sales as they were able to purchase Kaikoura peninsula ( a cultural island mass for Maori cultural preservation). The success of Whale Watching has created a sustainable development in the area of accommodation, dining, tour operations and transport services. WWK employs 70 locals in Moari and is committed to provide professional development for its employees.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The idea and practice of religion is something which historically and essentially has always been part of man. While religions differ and express many similarities across the centuries there has always been and continues to be relevance for it in the hearts of men. For our purposes of travel discussion, there will be no talk of doctrine and dogma here. Rather today’s blog topic seeks as always to discuss the forms and facets travel takes in our lives, in our countries and in our world. Since religion is an element which is arguably predominantly prevalent in man, it makes sense to examine it as a crucial part of who we are. It is not presumptuous to believe that it can impact our travel decisions and it is at least interesting to discern how it has influenced and been influenced by travel and tourism.…

    • 1455 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The pilgrimage location under study is Tirumala located in Andhra Pradesh state in India. The number of visitors to this important location has been steadily increasing over time. As of 2011, the location attracted approximately 30 to 40 million visitors a year.…

    • 4481 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ace Travel, Nepal

    • 4683 Words
    • 19 Pages

    The uniqueness of Nepal with its panoramic natural beauty and its rich cultural heritage has attracted many people to this country. It is a multicultural, multilingual and naturally gifted country. Nepal’s diversity attracts tourists. Its physical uniqueness offers a wide scope of activities that range from visiting jungle resort camps to trekking in snow-capped mountains. Tourism is important to Nepal as a source of foreign exchange and a major employment generator. At the time of writing the sector accounted for approximately 22 per cent of total foreign earnings (or 4 per cent of GDP).…

    • 4683 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    of Sustainable Tourism 3 (3), 155-65. Hunter, C. (1997). Sustainable tourism as an adaptive paradigm. Annals of Tourism Research 24 (4), 850-67. Ingham, B. (1993). The Meaning of Development: Interactions Between New and Old Ideas. World Development 2, (11), 1803-1821. King, B. Pizam A. & Milman A. (1993). Social Impacts of Tourism: Host Perception. Annals of Tourism Research, 20,650-665. Liburd, L. J. (2005). Sustainable tourism and innovation on mobile tourism services. Tourism Review International, 9, 107-118. Mathieson, A& Wall, G (1982). Tourism: Economic, physical and social impacts Longman Scientific and Techical, Essex. Mathieson, A& Wall, G (1986). Tourism: Economic, physical and social impacts. New York: Longruan, Ins. McMinn, S. (1997). The challenge of sustainable tourism. The Environmentalist,17 (2), 135-141. Meyer, J.L. and G.S. Helfman. (1993). The ecological basis of sustainability. Ecology Applied 3 (4), 569. Miller, G (2003). Consumerism in sustainable tourism: a survey of UK consumers, Journal of Sustainable Tourism Vol 11 (1), 17-39. Miltin, D. (1992). Sustainable Development: A Guide to the Literature. Environment and Urbanization 4, 111-124. Moser, P., (2001). "Glorification, Disillusionment or the Way into the Future? The Significance of Local Agenda 21 Processes for the Needs of Local Sustainability", Local Environment, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 453-467. Pearce, D. Barbier, E. & Markandya, A. (1990). Sustainable Development, Economics and Environmental in the Third World. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.…

    • 3295 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics