Marketing spiritual tourism : qualitative interviews with private tourism operators in Pakistan

This paper presents a study on marketing of spiritual tourism based upon in-depth interviewing of a sample of the tourism operators in Pakistan. A qualitative approach was adopted; in-depth interviews were conducted with those tourism operators who offered some spiritual experiences in their travel packages. The operators were asked for details about the behaviours, attitudes and experiences of the spiritual tourists in Pakistan. This paper discusses the findings of the interviews regarding the spiritual tourists’ group or individual preferences and the influence of reference groups or opinion leaders on their tourism decisions. The main conclusion of this original study was that Pakistani spiritual tourists prefer to travel with families or friends and are strongly inspired by historical and religious leaders. This can help craft appropriate product and promotion strategies.