درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Spirituality in the present world has surpassed different geographical, racial, religious, gender, and etc. boundaries. The issue has emerged under such different titles as religion, originality, the meaning of life, etc., and raised a number of debates. The enthusiasm in seeking meaning has been manifested in various fields including tourism as much as the journey is sometimes interpreted seeking for meaning. However, it is yet unclear how the two areas are linked together in different tourism approaches and branches. Volunteer tourism, among these, is known as one of the increasingly prevalent approaches to various forms of tourism. In this regard, the present research intends to find the relationship between volunteer tourism approach and spirituality highlighting literature review. Then, relying on practically available pieces of evidence, spiritual effects of Iranian Pro-poor tourism (Travel of Iranian volunteers to deprived areas) is reviewed and emphasized on volunteer tourists as an Islamic-Iranian voluntary traveling model.

It is truly undeniable that tourism is a system leading to epistemology and resulting in spiritual growth and excellence. The mission of the journey lies in its spiritual achievements and eco-lodges provide the potential context for mutual interconnections and gaining meaning and excellence. Therefore, lacking emphasis on spiritual potentials of eco-lodges in the accommodation sector is the main concern of this research. The present study aims to identify the factors influencing the landscape development of eco-lodges from the viewpoint of tourists to explain and analyze the realization of the spiritual landscape of eco-lodges via the perception of the eco-lodges’ landscape. The main concern of this qualitative research is seeking what a tourist sees, what he understands, how the type of accommodation would lead him from objectivity to subjectivity and ultimately, how the perception of the spiritual landscape from tourist’s view is. Answering research questions through the qualitative method with an interpretive approach and inductive strategy has been conducted by a semi-structured interview tool. Besides, the research data is gathered via two phases of coding the general concepts and classification of concepts based on the frequency. Lastly, the findings have been analyzed and interpreted through a conceptual framework. Based on research results, staying in eco-lodge causes leading resident tourist from objectivity to subjectivity and this is derived from perception of spiritual landscape. The components of the eco-lodges’ landscape adapting with three  parameters of spirituality in tourism, lead tourists to the perception of the spiritual landscape as well as the realization of the mutual understanding of nature and man in the journey and the achievement of the meaning and spirit through accommodation in eco-lodges.

When deliberating on the spiritual dimension of tourism, one key question is that how individuals are seeking for their life meaning and experiences of divine existence, as well as their connectedness as subjectively lived during their travel.  In fact, tourism is closely connected to religion which has always been a powerful travel motivation from the time of early pilgrimages to contemporary journeys to sacred places. Religious sites, rituals, festivals and ceremonies are considered important attractions for both religious followers with special systems of belief and tourists with a casual interest. Perhaps, this characteristic of the tourism experience is the main reason for spiritual tourism experiences being recently popular among individuals who have started engaging in spiritualitydriven experiences and among persons aiming to develop their continuing sublime engagement by means of travel. There are various reasons for travelling for spiritual growth which is opposed to the traditional notions of pilgrimage and religious tourism. 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.