As destination attractiveness influences tourists' behavioural intentions and acts as a significant predictor in competitive advantage of destinations, the studies have focused on this aspect with various new approaches and methodologies, Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) being one of them. The research contributes in identifying six essential factors (accommodation, quality of amenities, infrastructural facilities, safety and security, host culture and community, and transport networks) that influence destination attractiveness of Kedarnath Temple, Kedarnath and Omkareshwar Temple, Ukhimath. This study aims to address the application of IPA scheme as a consistent and easy to use tool to support policymakers and destination management organisations in the context of the main area in intercession to develop the perceived attractiveness of a destination and its services. It supports the purview of degrowth policies to support the local infrastructure, local communities, and focus on the sustainable development of these places.
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Tourism has been a global and fastest-growing industry. The industry has been spread into different categories and forms of tourism like Cultural Tourism, Rural tourism, Recreational Tourism, Health & Wellness Tourism, Eco-Tourism, Cultural Tourism, Spiritual Tourism, Pilgrim Tourism, Tribal Tourism, and Dark tourism. Most can fall under Special Interest Tourism (World Travel and Tourism Council). The concept of Spiritual Tourism is a road to explore life's purpose and self-enhancement. According to (Smith, Macleod and Robertson 2010), spiritual Tourism helps us strike the right balance of body, mind and spirit, which might or might not be related to religion. Sometimes there needs to be clarity about two concepts (religious and spiritual tourism), which have been used interchangeably. Wilson (2016) has stated that some researchers have been able to throw some light on Spiritual Tourism, but some couldn't give a holistic picture of the same. Spiritual tourism has gained existence due to foreign tourists bringing avenues of new opportunities and foreign exchange to the destinations.
Spirituality has been tourism's prime motivation for centuries (Bowers & Cheer, 2017). The potential of spiritual tourism is rightly tapped by tourism destinations globally which overlap with religious sentiments and practices in countries like India (Haq & Medhekar 2020). The growing interest in spiritual tourism is evidently increasing, and its potential has been rediscovered globally due to demographic factors (Buzinde, 2020). It is empirical to understand the drivers for spiritual tourism for the countries offering a combination of spiritual and religious experiences. The spiritual tourism drivers fluctuate between commodification and institutionalisation (Cheer et al., 2017). Over the years, religion and spiritual tourism have been considered from the point view of being sacred, divine, and holy in their thoughts and practices. Spiritual tourism has been different for different countries, like the Vatican for Catholics, Mecca and the Sufi shrines for Muslims, and the Ganges, temples and other religious places for Hindus in India (Timothy and Iversion 2006.)
India is blessed with immense potential for tourists for all reasons and all seasons in the form of pilgrimages, historical monuments, vibrant culture and wildlife. India is an abode to 36 world heritage sites that more than 8.80 million foreign tourists visited in 2016 (Government of India, 2017). Uttarakhand, known as Dev Bhoomi, Land of Gods, has mesmerising and splendid landscapes, valleys, meadows, snow-capped mountains and the most visited pilgrimage destinations. Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri, Gangotri, Tungnath, Nanda Devi, Rishikesh, Haridwar Uttarakhand, renowned as Devbhoomi or the Land of Gods, is a destination with a multitude of temples that attract devotees throughout the year. One of the prominent pilgrimages in Uttarakhand is the Char Dham Yatra, which encompasses four sacred sites in the Himalayas: Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath.