International journal of Tourism, Culture and Spirituality

The main motivations behind creative tourism, as a new form of tourism in the postmodern world, consist in achieving a new understanding of the “self” and the pursuit of “meaning,” “identity,” and “authenticity,” which have transformed the paradigm of tourism. With the development of the phenomenon of “spiritualism” in our time in which people turn away from the religion as a predetermined and organized phenomenon, in these new styles, the criterion is not to discover the religious other; it is to discover the self in the other. In this paper, we introduce the essential difference between creative tourism as an instance of postmodern tourism and cultural tourism, and we will examine the component of spirituality in creative tourism, and then elaborate the former as an opportunity for the development and understanding of religious beliefs and a ground for the creativity of the religious culture. Using historical-hermeneutical approach, this paper examines the concept of "spirituality" in lived travel experience of a creative tourists and argues that when discussing spirituality of tourism, one potential avenue is flourishment of religious creativity. A key objective of this paper therefore, is to provide an initial mapping of, and insights into this territory.

As one of the richest intellectual domains of mankind, Islamic culture has played a prominent role in the formation of diverse dimensions of Islamic community. In this regard, the rich Islamic art, which is intermixed with the elegance of Islamic architecture, is regarded as one of the aspects of Towhid (belief in the oneness of God) and divine worldview. Since the mankind is not a single-dimensional creature, and is innately inclined to beauty and innovation, architects have sought to create an original work imbued with spiritual meanings and themes within a material realm through reliance on their experience, thoughts, individual creativity as well as an aesthetic spirit on one hand, and the manifestation of spirituality and other notions on the other. The contemporary human, by setting out on journey on the earth, has made an attempt to seek knowledge and awareness, and Islamic architecture is considered as an epiphany of human nature as well as a manifestation of contemplation and existence in the depth of human spirit, which is believed to be one of the most significant elements of tourism. The present research is aimed at exploring the conceptual symbols in Islamic architecture originating from Islamic worldview, as the rich Islamic principles have inspired Muslim architects, whose thoughts and environment have been influenced by Islamic worldview. The present article has been written adopting a descriptive-analytical method. The results indicate that architectural elements in Iran have not been created without taking Islamic ideology and concepts into account, but rather all the elements applied are endowed with spirituality and divine symbols.

Religion is the core and key element of human life and as a travel organizer, it has played an important role in human life from the past to the present. The essence of a human being has been founded based on the primordial nature and spiritual dimension, which is not merely composed of material dimensions and, possibly, its existential spiritual dimension is a key element of humanity. Therefore, spirituality as a type of psychological quality -that is beyond religious beliefs and motivates man and creates feelings such as understanding divine solemnity and respect for creation in a human being- is an important factor in recognizing the nature of man in the perspective of monotheistic religions. This research was done by means of a qualitative-descriptive method, in the form of library studies and field interviews in two sections besides the content analysis method. In the fall and winter of 2017, an in-depth and semi-structured interview was conducted with 60 professors, experts and scholars of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam religions in three parts: defining the concept of spirituality, the place of travel in these religions, and the relationship between spirituality and travel. The results of the comparative studies show that spirituality is based on the human being's existential nature and its natural, spiritual, and immaterial dimension in order to help human beings to fulfill the purpose of creation as mentioned in monotheistic religions. In the meantime, human beings travel, especially do pilgrimages, as one of the sources of knowledge.

One of the ways to consolidate peace and friendship despite the remarkable progress of humanity, is tourism and spirituality. Tourism can change the tourists’ worldview and attitude by increasing their knowledge from visiting the landscapes of nature, geographical locations and legacy of the ancients, a change in adherence to the principles and values and the Slavery of the unique god. Being combined with peace and friendship, tourism can create a strong friendship and solidarity in the minds of tourists through recognizing the legacy of the past and the recognition of different nations and religions and different ethnicities and cultures. This solidarity and friendship is very important especially in the current and global era due to the problems of community life such as air pollution, psychological problems, cyber threats, social abnormalities. Given this approach and employing the analytical-descriptive method, this paper seeks to answer the following question: How the tourism-related dimension of spirituality can be able to create peace and stability and to strengthen peace and friendship among different societies from a local to the global scale? The findings of the research indicate that in the event of spirituality overcome in the tourist industry and travel of tourists, all activities of the tourist have the capacity to establish peace and cooperate on all scales. And tourism and spirituality for peace and friendship between nations and cultures are a powerful tool and a good platform.

Search for and gaining the meaning in life and attaining the perfection had been the primordial motive of human creation. The main reason for manifesting vacuum feelings in human is the crisis of lack of spirituality. Nowadays, human beings are seeking to mean of life and are searching for something more than materiality; because with the modern and advanced technology, the dissatisfaction with life and the sense of daily routine motivates him to discover the cause and the way out of the crisis. Understanding the meaning of life and obtaining satisfaction requires the use of spiritual intelligence and will not be achieved through rational and emotional intelligence solely. In this article, we studied the various dimensions of spiritual intelligence and presented the best model for spiritual intelligence. Then, according to the literature, the impact of tourism on the human was also studied. The results of the content analysis indicate that tourism and travel are effective factors in enhancing the components of spiritual intelligence and, as a result, the promotion of spiritual intelligence, and consequently they will increase the perception of spirituality in life.

Spiritual tourism and fulfilling its promotion and development is one of the challenges of this recently blooming industry during the last decade. Such matter must be reconsidered by the society inside the country on one hand, and promoting and organizing such approach internationally on the other. To improve and create variety in this industry and helping to introduce and develop the spiritual culture of this country therefore, finding innovative and interesting methods seem to be a major necessity. The religious-cultural potentials of the country and religious rituals and theatrical performance and national religious semi-theatres in particular are some of the most significant instances which could be under instruction and short and/or long-term planning of tourism industry managers. By investigating these arts and rituals, their features and the way they could be applied in this survey, in this article we would introduce and then explain each item and discuss their potentials afterwards. So what is emphasized in this article is that the Persian theatre, rituals and Persian Ta’zieh in particular are so potent and have their cultural and artistic functions which could be included in grand programs based on a precise, systematic plan and contribute to their rapid growth and becoming one of the major tourist spots and attractions. In this respect, we introduce and respect such rituals and their characteristics and features to our citizens and other nationalities to recognize spiritual tourism in particular. We aim to propose approaches and suggestions in order to recognize, record, organize and collect such rituals in both domestic and foreign tourism. This article has a descriptive-analysis approach based on library documented records.