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Yoga tourism

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Some yoga tourists travel to India to become certified yoga teachers, like these participants in a 200-hour Ashtanga yoga teacher training in Rishikesh.

Yoga tourism is travel with the specific purpose of experiencing some form of yoga, whether spiritual or postural. The former is a type of spiritual tourism; the latter is related both to spiritual and to wellness tourism. Yoga tourists often visit ashrams in India to study yoga or to be trained and certified as yoga teachers. Major centres for yoga tourism include Rishikesh and Mysore.

While the Himalayas is the birthplace of yoga and a major yoga tourism destination, yoga retreats and holidays are provided in many countries, varying from simple stays in guesthouses and ashrams to 5-star comfort in luxury resorts.

Wellness tourism and spiritual tourism

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Further information: Yoga and Yoga as exercise
Tourists practising Virabhadrasana I in Poon Hill, Nepal

Yoga is an ancient spiritual practice. From this perspective, yoga tourism can be seen as a form of spiritual tourism, involving the embracing and commodification of that practice by the Western world. There is a tension between the purely spiritual and transformational goals of yoga, meaning union with an entity higher than the self, and the commercialisation inherent in mass tourism.[1]

Especially when considering yoga as exercise, yoga tourism is seen by some scholars of tourism as a form of wellness tourism, in which people choose to go on a journey to further their health and well-being. In this context, yoga is taken to deliver physical benefits such as strength, flexibility, and relief from back pain; and mental benefits such as reduction of stress.[2][3] More specifically, when seen as a form of wellness tourism, it is defined as "tourism which focuses on the union of body, mind and spirit, but which is essentially areligious".[4]

A study of the global yoga tourism market estimated its value at $181 billion in 2022, and projected that this would grow to $319 billion by 2032.[5]

India

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Further information: Postural yoga in India
The governor of Tamil Nadu state, the Indian minister of tourism, and the yoga guru Jaggi Vasudev promoting yoga in India on the 3rd International Day of Yoga in 2017 at the Isha Foundation, Coimbatore. A large statue of the god Shiva as Adiyogi (the first yogi) is in the background.

India has become a major destination for yoga tourism, following on from Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati Maharaj's arrival in Rishikesh in 1922 to promote his philosophy of yoga.[6] In 1968, the English rock band the Beatles travelled to Rishikesh to take part in a Transcendental Meditation training course at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram, a Hindu monastery. The visit sparked widespread Western interest in Indian spirituality,[6] and has led many Westerners to travel to India hoping to find "authentic"[7] yoga in ashrams in places such as Mysore (for Ashtanga Yoga) and Rishikesh.[8] That movement led in turn to the creation of many yoga schools offering teacher training and promotion of India as a "yoga tourism hub"[9] by the Indian Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of AYUSH.[7][10][9] In 2014, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, addressing the United Nations, announced an annual Day of Yoga on 21 June.[11] This was adopted as the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations.[12]

Other venues

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A yoga holiday in Fiji

Yoga tourism does not necessarily mean travel to an ashram, nor necessarily to India, though as the birthplace of yoga it is the activity's locus classicus. Ashrams offering yoga exist, for example, in Canada.[13] Other possible types of venue describe themselves as "holistic centres" and "yoga holidays", including holidays at "a 5-star resort with a celebrity Yoga Teacher".[13] Yoga holidays are provided in countries including Greece, Sri Lanka, Japan, Thailand, Scotland, France, Morocco, England, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the Maldives and Wales.[14][15] Yoga retreats can be found in many countries, including for instance Costa Rica and Italy.[13] Hotels and guesthouses around the world similarly offer yoga holidays in countries such as Bulgaria and Turkey; "pastoral yoga" can be found in countries including France.[13]

Reception

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Youthful Westerners' sometimes naive spiritual quests to India, and the many varieties of ashram and yoga on offer to them, are gently[16] satirised in the Mindful Yoga instructor Anne Cushman's novel Enlightenment for Idiots.[17][16]

Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 memoir Eat, Pray, Love, now also a romantic Hollywood film, describes her experiences in an Indian ashram on her journey of self-discovery.[13] Gilbert is thought[18] to have stayed in the Siddha Yoga ashram Gurudev Siddha Peeth in Maharashtra; the film's "Pray" section was set in Ashram Hari Mandir at Pataudi, near Delhi.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Bowers, Hana; Cheer, Joseph M. (2017). "Yoga tourism: Commodification and western embracement of eastern spiritual practice". Tourism Management Perspectives. 24: 208–216. doi:10.1016/j.tmp.2017.07.013.
  2. ^ Lehto, Xinran Y.; Brown, Sally; Chen, Yi; Morrison, Alastair M. (2015). "Yoga Tourism as a Niche Within the Wellness Tourism Market" (PDF). Tourism Recreation Research. 31 (1): 25–35. doi:10.1080/02508281.2006.11081244. S2CID 167910243.
  3. ^ Dillette, Alana K.; Douglas, Alecia C.; Andrzejewski, Carey (2019). "Yoga tourism – a catalyst for transformation?" (PDF). Annals of Leisure Research. 22 (1): 22–41. doi:10.1080/11745398.2018.1459195.
  4. ^ Smith, Melanie; Kelly, Catherine (2006). "Holistic Tourism: Journeys of the Self?". Tourism Recreation Research. 31 (1): 15–24. doi:10.1080/02508281.2006.11081243.
  5. ^ "Global Yoga Tourism Market 2024–2033". Custom Marketing Insights. 2022. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
  6. ^ a b Goldberg, Philip (2010). American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation – How Indian Spirituality Changed the West. New York: Harmony Books. pp. 7, 152. ISBN 978-0-385-52134-5.
  7. ^ a b Maddox, Callie Batts (2014). "Studying at the source: Ashtanga yoga tourism and the search for authenticity in Mysore, India". Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change. 13 (4): 330–343. doi:10.1080/14766825.2014.972410. ISSN 1476-6825. S2CID 143449133.
  8. ^ Aggarwal, A. K.; Guglani, M.; Goel, R. K. (2008). "Spiritual & Yoga Tourism: A case study on experience of Foreign Tourists visiting Rishikesh, India". Conference on Tourism in India – Challenges Ahead, 15-17 May 2008, IIMK.[dead link‍]
  9. ^ a b Singh, Shikha. "Yoga Tourism in India India can be the Wellness Destination for the World". Retrieved 3 December 2019.
  10. ^ Ward, Mariellen (15 March 2012). "How to 'do' a yoga ashram in India". Archived from the original on 4 December 2019. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
  11. ^ "UN declares June 21 as 'International Day of Yoga'". The Times of India. 11 December 2014.
  12. ^ "International Yoga Day 2021: Theme, History, Quotes, Benefits, Importance". S A News. 2020-06-19. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  13. ^ a b c d e Lalonde, Angelique M. G. (2012). "Embodying asana in All New Places: Transformational Ethics, Yoga Tourism and Sensual Awakenings" (PDF). University of Victoria Department of Anthropology (PhD thesis).
  14. ^ Jones, Caroline Sylger (19 June 2017). "The 30 greatest yoga holidays on the planet". The Daily Telegraph.
  15. ^ Dunford, Jane (7 October 2018). "Perfect positions: 20 best yoga holidays worldwide". The Observer. The Guardian.
  16. ^ a b Dowdle, Hillari (2008). Enlightened Fiction. Yoga Journal. p. 117. Each character is ripe for a little satire, which makes the novel a fun read, especially if you're in on the joke... Cushman also manages to capture the heart of their teachings, which gives the book another level of meaning.
  17. ^ Douglas, Anna (September 2008). "Enlightenment for Idiots, by Anne Cushman". Inquiring Mind. 25 (1 (Fall 2008)).
  18. ^ a b "Eat, Pray, Love - now try the holiday". Conde Nast Traveller. 10 September 2010. Retrieved 4 December 2019.
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