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Spirituality is a universal and human phenomenon which is not restricted to any religions or religious groups. In fact, spiritual experiences are thought of as special human experiences which give meaning to life. Such enlightening experiences make man connect to a higher being. Therefore, spiritual tourism is a journey on which a traveller achieves a perception of spiritual experiences. Such experiences can be gained on a long walk with a group of sympathetic fellow travelers towards religious destinations. They may also be achieved while watching a pristine view of the nature which enables the viewer to understand the creator of the scene and reach deep meanings through a creative insight. Creative tourism is mostly manifested as a form of inner expression and discovery, a tool of improvement in identity and distinction or a search for the expansion of capabilities and experiences as well as an ability to reflect the life purposefully. This type of tourism belongs to self-actualizing individuals. In fact, they are educated people who seek to give meaning to life. Therefore, the creative tourism theory is the closest approach to tourism combined with spirituality. These two categories overlap with each other significantly. In this qualitative study, the two-stage Delphi technique and desk research method were used to verify this hypothesis. Creative tourism can be thought of as a new paradigm of tourism or the third generation after coastal tourism and cultural tourism. It can also be considered an evolved type of cultural tourism which pays more attention to the intangible heritage rather than the tangible one. In either case, it is a form of network tourism in which values are created collectively through available relationships and the flow of social relationships and capital in networks. Therefore, its new management models and strategies should be identified and applied. In the current study, the desk research method was used to identify such models. Then the two-stage Delphi technique was employed to verify them.

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.

Arguably, all people are spiritual. We will, at different stages, seek meaning and connection, and seek transcendence through self-improvement. Often, this personal quest will begin or resume, or be addressed more fervently after a personal event that leads to an awakening of one’s spirituality. This paper considers how transformative life experiences lead people to engage their spiritual side, and specifically how they may seek to do so through their experience of travel. Through 18 months of in-depth phenomenological data collection, this paper analyses the personal narratives of 11 tourists who experienced volunteer tourism after experiencing life events that facilitated a spiritual awakening. This paper finds that experiences such as the death of a close family member, the facing of mortality, or existential crisis can lead to a motivation to travel, and that travel can be deeply spiritual. It posits the question: In the year 2017, with great global and personal uncertainty, is the desire for spiritual growth through travel becoming more mainstream and urgent?

Stakeholders of the tourism industry are facing crises with many stress factors. Resilience is one of the most essential human abilities in critical situations. To improve the resilience of the stakeholders of the tourism industry, paying attention to spiritual health is very important. Spiritual health is a fundamental factor in the resilience of tourism industry stakeholders. This study aims to present a model of identifying and prioritizing the effective factors in spiritual health on the resilience of tourism stakeholders. For this purpose, information was collected through an in-depth study of the subject literature, and an in-depth interview with 15 experts in the field of tourism who are familiar with tourism, spirituality, and culture, and coding was done with the exploratory approach of thematic analysis and using ATLAS-ti software. And finally, 28 indicators and six components were extracted. Then, in the next stage, the research components were implemented by 15 research experts using the questionnaire and interpretive-structural modeling (ISM) method, and using MATLAB software, the position, importance, and effectiveness of the extracted research components were presented at six levels. The results of this research state that the element of spiritual structure in tourism has the most impact and is the cornerstone of spiritual health in the resilience of the Stakeholders of the tourism industry, and the component of spiritual perception of the tourism stakeholders has the most effectiveness.

A connection has long existed between tourism and spirituality. More specifically, travel for spiritual purposes has for centuries been a popular manifestation of human mobility. Pilgrimage and other spiritually-motivated travel is widely considered to be one of the earliest forms of tourism and nowadays, religious tourism, in all its forms, has evolved into a major sector of the global tourism market. Over the last three decades, however, an alternative perspective on the tourism-spirituality relationship has emerged. Focusing on the meaning or significance of contemporary tourism, it is argued that tourism is a sacred journey, a secular spiritual experience; in other words, tourism has become a secular alternative to the institution of religion, the contemporary tourist a modern, secular pilgrim. Hence, a conceptual divide exists in the relationship between tourism and spirituality, between spiritual (religious) tourism and tourism as spirituality (religion).  Moreover, that divide is evidenced in much of the extant research into tourism, religion and spirituality.                 As this paper suggests, however, such a conceptual divide over-simplifies the relationship between tourism and spirituality; not only is the distinction between spiritual / religious tourism and tourism as a secular spiritual experience becoming increasing fuzzy – some traditional religious travel experiences, for example, are taking on the aura of commoditised tourism products, with implications for the experience of participants themselves – but also the relationship can be viewed from different disciplinary and theoretical positions. A humanistic perspective, for example, questions the notion of spirituality itself, whilst varying interpretations of religion / spirituality also cast the relationship in different lights. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to explore the complexity of the spiritual dimension of tourism. Reviewing the extant literature, it highlights the dimensions of and limits to research into the relationship between tourism and spirituality and, exploring the phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, challenges contemporary understandings and points to areas demanding further research.  

This paper proposes a model for managing sustainable intercultural communication in the tourism industry of Iran and Oman, with a focus on the role of media. The study employed the grounded theory method and paradigm model, using in-depth literature review, background analysis, and interviews with relevant experts to answer research questions. The coding process involved open, central, and selective coding techniques. The model identifies the need for a combination of Bourdieu's capitals to achieve sustainable management of intercultural communication through the media, and emphasizes the importance of accepting globalization as a platform for positive changes in tourism. The model also highlights the need for institutionalizing the role of the media in sustainable intercultural communication, and developing the concept of tourism as hot and cool media. Other key factors include the development of regulations in proportion to contemporary world requirements, training of managers and citizens, and the need for stable intercultural relations. The model proposes action strategies such as extensively using media to develop regular intercultural ties, and the application of technology as a tool for sustainable development of tourism and social media. The proposed model explains the role of virtual media in improving sustainable intercultural communication management in the tourism industry, and could aid in optimal employment of virtual media in this field.

Human beings take a step in the path of discovery and searching the universe. Meanwhile, travel is one of the means of searching wisdom and experience for communicating with the land, nature and the world’s creator, as well as finding meaning and concept of life. Therefore, humans understand travel as a source of perception and take benefits from it for recognizing themselves and the universe. The term "spiritual perception" is defined as a way for understanding and interpreting all non-material affairs related to the origin of human soul which has been investigated in this research. In this regarda qualitative-quantitative method has been applied in which the spiritual perception factors were obtained by using concept analysis method after conducting deep interviews with experts. Four factors of human hypothesis, spiritual truth, outward truth and human interaction were considered. Study population consisted of foreign cultural tourists travelling to the City of Isfahan from March to June 2018.  Gathered data was analyzed by using structural equation and Smart PLS. The results showed that all the hypotheses of research were confirmed and there were meaningful relationships among tourists' spiritual perception and mentioned factors.    

The current research mainly aims to investigate the effective factors in creating a food tourism brand in Shiraz. The statistical population includes all experts in the field of tourism and hotel management, food, cooking, and restaurant industry, and tourists, who were selected using the purposeful sampling method. First, 13 factors were identified according to research literature. The identified factors were given to 10 selected experts who were aware of the desired criteria. Then, the relationships between these factors were determined using the fuzzy Dematel method, and the answer to the second question was also determined. The results showed that the factor of investment in the field of food tourism, and using new advertising tools in this field are the most important thing in creating a food tourism brand in Shiraz. The parameters of food quality and food authenticity are the most effective in this area. In addition, creating a good feeling towards the brand and advertising, in this field are among the most effective parameters, respectively. Food tourism branding issue is the most important issues that should be considered in Shiraz. In this regard, it is possible to identify the foods of Shiraz as intangible cultural heritage, bring them to the national register, prepare their files for global registration in UNESCO, and conduct cultural and political consultations so that the files should be presented at the international level.

Comprehensive and reliable conceptual definition of concepts can be considered as the first step toward managing the phenomena based on those concepts. Spiritual tourism is a multidimensional phenomenon with different mixed concepts such as spiritual experience, spiritual tourist, achieving spirituality through tourism, deepening and institutionalizing spirituality perception (experience), training and learning spirituality (spiritual experiences), development planning, spiritual tourism economics, and spiritual tourism marketing. The mentioned concepts are formed in dialectical models that are influenced by disciplines such as geography, history, economics, management, religion, and mysticism. Regardless of the level and the type of combination of concepts, the definition of these concepts may be different in various paradigms due to the differences in assumptions, ontology, epistemology and methodology of different paradigms. Such a different even makes the spiritual tourism’s definition process more difficult. Spiritual tourism has already common definitions in literature that are not formally classified based on various paradigms’ assumptions; and have not been specified by the tourists under which paradigm that they are formed. Therefore, in this paper, the concept of spiritual tourism is reviewed from the perspective of different paradigms such as positivism, critical romanticism, post-modernism, critical realism, and pragmatism and new definitions are extracted. Based on the results of this article, the passage from abstract concepts to operational concepts in the field of spiritual tourism has been smoother. Besides, a more sustainable vision has been created about how to create and disseminate knowledge in the field of spiritual tourism. Hence, the main aim and contribution of this article is to extract the different conceptual definitions of spiritual tourism in different paradigms, in order to provide a reliable paradigm conceptual definition of tourism spiritual. The present paper concluded that a reliable and comprehensive definition of spiritual tourism can be provided in Pragmatism Paradigm framework.  This pragmatic definition can be used as a base for future planning, management, marketing, and other operational and administrative applications.

Studying the concept of spirituality in tourism is neithera newapproach nor a study of a particular kind of tourism or simply a religious perspective to tourism. Rather, it is an indicator of spiritual contents that today’s tourism is submerged into discover and attain non-material values and the reality duringthe length of its journey. This research offers a new perspective in the study of the methodology of tourism studies with a descriptive-analytical approach, conjunctive viewwhile using library documentation and a review of theoretical foundations according to the fuzzylogicmethodology. The fuzzy logictheory possesses a more precise capacity to explain and analyze concepts and phenomena and also a spectral reading of phenomena thatuses the binary numbers of 0 and 1 as the extreme points of reality and accepts that there are infinite points of reality between the two of them; therefore, in order to more precisely and comprehensively understand reality, one must have a hierarchical view towardthephenomena. With this approach, spirituality in tourism includes a great variety of concepts and elementsthat are allambiguous and graded. These elements include reasoning and probing, religious denomination and beliefs, mutual relations, and quality of life and culture. The propositions of spirituality in tourism essentially exist in bothfuzzy and spectral logic,not justwith fuzzy logic because of the essential ambiguity existingin concepts and elements andtheir metaphysical aspects. Therefore, this study is built upon the studies related to spiritualityin tourismconducted through the fuzzy logicmethodologies. According to the obtainedresults, this important approach must be paid attention so that the great capacities of spirituality in tourism in the areas of knowledge and action can be correctly utilized.