Applying porter’s generic strategies to the marketing of spiritual tourism in Pakistan

This paper is an extension of a doctoral research study being conducted to develop strategies for the effective marketing of spiritual tourism. It explores the relevance of Michael Porter’s matrix to the marketing of spiritual tourism in Pakistan. This paper also discusses the control of the Government of Pakistan on the tourism industry. The Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with selected tourism operators and Government officials to investigate their adoption of generic strategies for the marketing of spiritual tourism. The general observations of the study were that cost leadership and broad differentiation strategies seem to be more applicable to both public and private tourism operators in Pakistan. It was also observed that the Government was more interested in a cost leadership strategy for outbound spiritual tourism to Saudi Arabia, rather than a broad differentiation strategy for in-bound or domestic spiritual tourism.