Abstract:
Spiritual tourism, including wellness tourism, was a rising global trend even
before the pandemic. As the pandemic eases and the world gradually returns
to international travel, places known for their spiritual energy and
significance might become popular destinations. Therefore, this study
focused on developing a sustainable spiritual tourism model by capitalizing
on the resources in Ridigama. In order to construct the proposed model, this
study adopted a situated-cognition approach to identify the spiritual
landscapes, sociocultural/community landscapes and built & natural
settings present in Ridigama village. Because of the village's religious
landmark, Ridi Viharaya, the study's findings suggested that the Religious Spiritual Tourism Continuum would form the basis of this model. The area's
natural and sociocultural resources, however, have the potential to enhance
the model's worth. As a result, it encompasses tours for religious education,
yoga and meditation, stays in spiritual caves, tours of spiritual communities,
and tours for spiritual aesthetics. In order to enhance value generation and
sustainability, these model parameters have to be linked with ecotourism,
historic tourism, and community tourism
