Bangkok--Oct 26--eTurboNews
Spiritual rather than religious tourism is becoming the new buzzword in the travel-and-tours circuit. In recent times, countries like Egypt, England, India and the Bahamas have been seeing rising sky-high profits through spiritual tourism. These countries have been marketing their religious monuments as tourist attractions for the growing number of seekers of spirituality from all over the world.
This growing congregation of tourists, it is believed, rejects the restrictive teachings and closed structures of formal religion in favor of a more open tolerant set of spiritual beliefs. They are mainly people from the developed world who grew up in a milieu of materialism. They are intrigued by things exotic and are interested in seeing and experiencing unconventional and non-Christian monuments, festivals and ceremonies in distant lands.
In Asia, a wide array of sites offer unique and revelatory experiences for both the curious visitors and devoted pilgrims. Although this aspect of tourism has remained untapped so far in the southern Caribbean, it has been exploited in the U.K. by groups such as The North Yorkshire Tourism Initiative. In like manner, Trinidad can definitely adopt this marketing strategy since it is the home of a wide variety of picturesque temples which adorn its multi-ethnic landscape. To be able to participate in this growing spiritual tourism industry, certain temples will have to be selected for participation to offer spiritual and aesthetic satisfaction.
One such temple is the richly-decorated mandir in Edinburgh in Chaguanas with its many miniature sculptures decorating its walls and panels. Then there is the magnificent mural of natural art in the sanctums of the Trevini Mandir in Williamsville which has not been duplicated anywhere else in Trinidad or the Caribbean. At the Hare Krishna temple in Longdenville, there is an altar of breathtaking beauty with unique motifs of deities and saints, in addition to peacocks, feathers and flowers. In Penal, there is the Shiva Temple where scores of devotees converge weekly to seek the reputed healing powers of a symbolic "growing" stone. At the Dattareya Yoga Centre and Temple in Carapichaima stands a gigantic Hanuman murti , which towers over 85 feet (25 meters) tall. In the same area is the monumental Temple-in-the-Sea known world-wide for its exceptional history, design and location. With a bicycle as his only means of transport, one man built this temple 500 feet (150 meters) off the seashore. This is a proud monument in Trinidad that would one day be declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Spiritual tourism has the greatest potential for attracting foreign visitors year round, in addition to the busy annual Carnival season in February and March. According to the latest travel data from the Central Statistical Office (CSO), the majority of incoming visitors to Trinidad (a total of 350,000 in 2004) originate from USA alone. An analyst from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) states that inboard visitor spending ranks high with a total of about $3.3 billion for the year.
There is a large potential overseas market to be captured in this venture. The target market would be Hindus and Indians in the United States who comprise a total of over two million people, and is reported to be the fastest-growing and wealthiest community in that country.
As a product brand, tour operators, hotel managers and entrepreneurial pandits [Hindu priests
] can become involved in promoting and inviting visitors to view the historic, artistic and architectural aspects of these traditionally-religious sites. To optimise potential benefits, collaboration must be sought with this country's Tourism and Industrial Development Company Limited (TIDCO) and its subsidiary, the Tourism Development Company (TDC). This new initiative is a great opportunity for all stakeholders to negotiate and balance the reverence of the past with the secularism of the present by taking holiday tourism to a higher plane.
Indeed, a special tour can be packaged to meet the needs for those who want to experience the excursion as a form of pilgrimage. These types of tourists must be encouraged to take part in religious activities, worship their respective deities, listen to scriptural narrations, chant with the choir of singers, and taste sumptuous vegetarian dishes. If they are interested, they must be given the opportunity to have their future foretold before their eyes by the reading of their palms, or the decoding of the astrological signs of the Hindu almanac . Those who want to guard themselves from the negative forces of the unknown must be provided with protective amulets by the resident saadhu [Hindu ascetic
]. Temple managers can even invite and facilitate religious groups to host conventions, conferences and retreats in some of the large buildings at competitive rates.
The Hindu tradition in Trinidad offers a garland of temples, a banquet of feasts, and a display of festivals to casual site-seers and spiritually-starved visitors. This dimension of tourism would definitely enrich the lives of visitors and the economy of the host country. In addition to bringing tax revenues to the national treasury, this initiative would provide (additional) jobs for pandits, researchers, temple owners, food-caters, drivers, hoteliers, airline owners, tour guides and operators. The travel and tourism industry currently represents 13.8 percent of the economy's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). No other industry in the oil-and-gas-rich country generates the high degree of employment (16.7 percent). The World Travel and Tourism Council states that travel and tourism in Trinidad and Tobago plays "a strong role as a generator of wealth and employment across all parts of the country."
Dr. Kumar Mahabir is the president of Association of Caribbean Anthropologists (ACA). He may be reached via email at [email protected] .
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