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The purpose of this paper is to examine marketing strategies that India is currently applying to promote itself as a competitive yoga destination.

The methodological approach consisted of a constructivist research paradigm, a qualitative methodology and an interview-based data collection method. Ten in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with yoga practitioners from various backgrounds and yoga levels who have travelled to India for yoga tourism purposes.

The findings determined that interpretation of yoga tourism is crucial in the choice of marketing approach adopted by destinations offering yoga retreats because, as the study has shown, various perceptions of yoga constitute the basis for particular promotional strategies.

Future research could expand on the sample size and demographics of the current study by investigating, possibly through comparative means, larger groups of more diversified yoga practitioners from different countries or backgrounds.

It was recommended that India’s tourism marketers re-design their approach concerning an ‘authentic’ yoga experience. Indian destination marketing organisations should target those searching for an authentic yoga experience and use imagery that is realistic.

The findings of this study have led to the re-positioning of yoga tourism in India, utilising a unique combinative approach in which a more inclusive concept of wellness is juxtaposed against a lack of any religious referencing. It was also revealed that the motivations of yoga tourists are only partially targeted through an undifferentiated strategic marketing approach.

The purpose of this paper is to arrive at a brand architecture model for promoting India as a tourism destination brand, carrying with it a diversity of tourism products and states/regions.

The principal methodology adopted is discursive analysis and argument. Relevant examples from other countries have been drawn upon. Brand architecture concepts are used in the analysis.

The Government of India's tourism ministry has been promoting the country as a monolithic brand with the tagline “Incredible India” over the past seven years. This approach has so far been quite successful. However, to maintain growth momentum, the paper proposes migration towards a cohesive brand architecture model with a hierarchy of well‐connected brands. At the apex would be “India” as the master brand, which would endorse sub‐brands along two principal dimensions – tourism product categories and geographic regions/states. Regional aspirations would thus be accommodated. At the same time, India and its numerous constituents can be promoted in a structured manner with greater clarity and focus.

The paper offers a framework for reorienting India's tourism branding strategy so as to be more cohesive and effective. The model can also be applicable to other large countries with competing geographic regions and varied tourism products.

This study aims to enhance the knowledge by offering perspectives from an emerging market by reviewing the existing literature on food tourism. This study applies a multimethod analysis, providing insights into the advancement of food tourism in India, the contributions, critical findings and emerging research themes.

The study adopted a multimethod analysis using descriptive, narrative and bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer to analyze research papers published on food tourism in India shortlisted from Scopus and Google Scholar.

Future research should focus on gauging the potential of food tourism in different regions of the country, applying theoretical frameworks that have not been used. “Culinary Diversity and Heritage,” “Sustainable and Responsible Food Tourism,” “Consumer Behavior and Food Tourism Experiences,” “Rural Development and Economic Impact,” “Technology and Digitalization,” “Stakeholder Collaboration,” “Food Safety and Hygiene” and “Policy and Regulation” were the identified future research themes. These findings are significant for emerging economies across the globe.

This study summarized the progress of food tourism research in India, the contributions and emerging themes, supplementing the need to study food tourism in India. This study contributed methodologically to the literature by adopting a multimethod review combining descriptive, narrative and bibliometric analysis. Finally, by proposing ideas and constructs for future research, this study provides directions for future food tourism research from an emerging market’s perspective.

Findings will assist managers and stakeholders in comprehending the factors influencing tourists, destination marketing and branding, aiding in effective planning and executing food tourism strategies to promote destinations. The identified themes and keywords can help academicians and researchers dwell upon the emerging research themes in food tourism.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study analyzing food tourism research in India adopting a multimethod analysis. The study provides an in-depth analysis applying descriptive, narrative and bibliometric analysis, highlighting the critical trends and research themes. A framework for future studies was also proposed.

该研究旨在通过回顾有关美食旅游的现有文献, 提供来自新兴市场的观点, 从而强化现有的知识。本研究采用多方法分析, 深入了解印度美食旅游的发展、贡献、重要发现和新兴研究主题。

该研究采用了多种方法分析, 使用 VOSviewer 进行描述性、叙述性和文献计量分析, 以分析从 Scopus 和谷歌学术搜索中入围的关于印度美食旅游的研究论文。

未来的研究应侧重于衡量该国不同地区美食旅游的潜力, 应用尚未使用的理论框架。 “烹饪多样性和传统”、“可持续和负责任的美食旅游”、“消费者行为和美食旅游体验”、“农村发展和经济影响”、“技术和数字化”、“利益相关者协作”、“食品安全和卫生”, “政策与法规”是确定的未来研究主题。这些发现对全球新兴经济体具有重要意义。

本研究总结了印度美食旅游研究的进展、贡献和新兴主题, 补充了研究印度美食旅游的必要性。本研究采用结合描述性、叙述性和文献计量分析的多方法回顾, 在方法论上为文献做出了贡献。最后, 通过提出未来研究的思路和结构, 本研究从新兴市场的角度为未来的美食旅游研究提供了方向。

调查结果将帮助管理者和利益相关者理解影响游客、目的地营销和品牌的因素, 帮助有效规划和执行食品旅游战略以促进目的地。 确定的主题和关键词可以帮助院士和研究人员深入研究食品旅游中新兴的研究主题。

El estudio tiene como objetivo mejorar el conocimiento al ofrecer perspectivas de un mercado emergente mediante la revisión de la literatura existente sobre turismo gastronómico. Este estudio aplica un análisis de múltiples métodos, que proporciona información sobre el avance del turismo gastronómico en la India, las contribuciones, los hallazgos críticos y los temas de investigación emergentes.

El estudio adoptó un análisis multimétodo mediante un análisis descriptivo, narrativo y bibliométrico utilizando VOSviewer para analizar los artículos de investigación publicados sobre el turismo gastronómico en la India preseleccionados de Scopus y Google Scholar.

La investigación futura debería centrarse en calibrar el potencial del turismo gastronómico en las distintas regiones del país, aplicando marcos teóricos que no se han utilizado. “Diversidad culinaria y patrimonio”, “Turismo gastronómico sostenible y responsable”, “Comportamiento del consumidor y experiencias de turismo gastronómico”, “Desarrollo rural e impacto económico”, “Tecnología y digitalización”, “Colaboración de las partes interesadas”, “Seguridad e higiene alimentaria”, “Política y regulación” fueron los temas de investigación futura identificados. Estos hallazgos son significativos para las economías emergentes de todo el mundo.

Este estudio resumió el progreso de la investigación sobre turismo alimentario en la India, las contribuciones y los temas emergentes, complementando la necesidad de estudiar el turismo alimentario en la India. Este estudio contribuyó metodológicamente a la bibliografía al adoptar una revisión multimétodo que combina el análisis descriptivo, narrativo y bibliométrico. Por último, al proponer ideas y constructos para futuras investigaciones, este estudio proporciona orientaciones para futuras investigaciones sobre el turismo gastronómico desde la perspectiva de un mercado emergente.

Los resultados ayudarán a los gestores y a las partes interesadas a comprender los factores que influyen en los turistas, el marketing de los destinos y la creación de marcas, contribuyendo a una planificación y ejecución eficaces de las estrategias de turismo gastronómico para promocionar los destinos. Los temas y palabras clave identificados pueden ayudar a los académicos e investigadores a profundizar en los temas de investigación emergentes en el turismo gastronómico.

Se trata del primer estudio que analiza la investigación sobre turismo gastronómico en la India adoptando un análisis multimétodo. El estudio proporciona un análisis en profundidad aplicando un análisis descriptivo, narrativo y bibliométrico, destacando las tendencias críticas y los temas de investigación. También se propone un marco para futuros estudios.

The study aims to facilitate the medical tourists visiting emerging countries for various kinds of ailments by ranking the possible destinations to avail medical treatments.

A Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchical Process (FAHP) with a mixed-method approach is applied to analyze data collected from patients and substantiate it with medical tour operators in India to gain managerial insights on the choice-making patterns of the patients.

India is a preferred emerging market location due to the low cost and high medical staff quality. India offers value for money, whereas Singapore and Thailand are preferred destinations for quality and technology.

The study will facilitate the emerging markets' governments, hospitals and medical tourists to understand the importance of various determinants responsible for availing medical treatment outside their country.

The study recommends that cost and quality care are the patients' prime focus; government policies must provide clear guidelines on what the hospitals and country environment can offer and accordingly align the marketing strategies.

This study is the first attempt to rank various factors affecting medical tourism using the FAHP approach.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the impact of institutional quality on the international tourism demand of India. To carry out the analysis, the study first analyses the impact of composite institutional quality index and then proceeds to examine the impact of each of the individual components of institutional quality on the international tourism demand of India. The impact of income of the tourist originating countries, tourism price, trade openness and Human Development Index (HDI) on tourism demand has also been examined.

The study employed panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model, with data from top 30 tourist originating countries for India for the period of 1995–2016.

The results indicated that an increase in the income of the tourist originating countries has spillover effects on the development of tourism sector of India. The impact of cost of travel proxied by relative prices between the destination and origin country is found to be negative, however, statistically insignificant. The impact of trade openness and development level of the host country (proxied by HDI) is found to have positive association with the tourism demand. Institutional quality is found to have positive association with international tourism demand of India. Among the individual components of institutional quality, rule of law, regulatory quality, control of corruption and voice and accountability are found to promote the tourism sector development in the economy. Contrarily, the impact of government effectiveness is found to be negative. In the short run, most of the variables were found to support their counterpart results in long run.

This study has practical implication not only in formulating tourism sector policies of the host countries but also for issuing tourist advisories in tourist originating countries. The study holds that policymakers should work for improving institutional environment of the country such as bureaucracy, legislature, regulatory quality, rule of law and for reducing corruption at all levels so as to ensure a sustained rise in tourist inflows to India.

This study validates the link between institutional quality of a country and international demand for its tourism. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the study is the first attempt that has comprehensively analysed the impact of institutional quality on tourism demand in Indian context which has been generally ignored in the tourism literature.

Tourism is one of the upcoming service industry in India with high potentials for future growth, particularly in rural areas. Many potential barriers are affecting the growth of tourism in rural India. Therefore, it is essential to explore and prioritize the barriers to tourism growth in rural India.

Qualitative and quantitative responses from “16” experts related to tourism and hospitality management from central India are collected for this study. An integrated Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) based framework is adopted to identify and relate significant barriers to tourism growth in India.

The result of the study identified many significant barriers and their importance to tourism growth in rural India.

The findings of this study add to the knowledge base of tourism research in line with the previous literature. This study offers an in-depth understanding of barriers focusing on rural tourism growth and devising both the plan of action and the suggestive measures in dealing with rural tourism.

The study provides a robust framework by integrating Interpretive Structural Modelling(ISM) and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) to explore and prioritizing the critical barriers to rural tourism growth in India. The results of this study can help the decision-maker to fundamentally improve the economy of India through the growth of rural tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors influencing the visit intention of medical tourists to India. This study also attempts to extend the theory of planned behaviour through the integration of perceived risk and facilitating condition.

Primary data were collected from a sample of 326 medical tourists arriving in India through Terminal-3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI-T3), New Delhi, India, during the months of October–December 2019. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling are deployed to analyze the collected data and validate the proposed research model.

The outputs of this study revealed that perceived financial risk, physical risk, psychological risk and facilitating conditions available in a country are significantly linked to the attitude of a medical tourist. Similarly, facilitating conditions available in a country are significantly related to perceived behavioural control of a medical tourist. Furthermore, it is also revealed that attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control are significantly related to visit intention of medical tourists to India; however, the perceived time risk and performance risk are insignificantly associated with the visit intention.

This study is restricted to the opinion of 326 sample respondents consisting of medical tourists who arrived in India through IGI-T3, New Delhi, during October–December 2019. In the future, a similar type of study may be conducted in different parts of the country with a relatively larger sample size

This study addresses the need for advancing the knowledge on the factors in determining visit intention of medical tourists towards India. This knowledge will become very crucial for India's medical tourism industry, which is aiming to attain a competitive edge in the global market.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework to identify and classify key medical tourism enablers (MTEs) and to study the direct and indirect effects of each enabler on the growth of medical tourism in India.

In this paper, an integrated approach using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and Fuzzy Matrice d'Impacts Croisés Multiplication Appliquée á un Classement (FMICMAC) analysis has been developed to identify and classify the key MTEs, typically identified by a comprehensive review of literature and expert opinion. The key enablers are also modeled to find their role and mutual influence.

The key finding of this modeling helps to identify and classify the enablers which may be useful for medical tourism decision makers to employ this model for formulating strategies in order to overcome challenges and to become a preferred medical tourism destination. Integrated model reveals enablers such as medicine insurance coverage, international healthcare collaboration, and efficient information system as dependent enablers. No enabler is found to be autonomous enablers. The important enablers like healthcare infrastructure facilities and global competition are found as the linkage enablers. Research in medicine and pharmaceutical science, medical tourism market, transplantation law, top management commitment, national healthcare policy, competent medical and para-medical staffs are found as the independent enablers. Integrated model also establishes the direct and indirect relationship among various enablers.

The research provides an integrated model using ISM and FMICMAC to identify and classify various key enablers of medical tourism in India. In conventional cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification analysis, binary relationship of various enablers is considered. FMICMAC analysis helps to establish possibility of relationship among various enablers so that low-key hidden factors can be identified. The low-key hidden factors may initially exhibit marginal influence but they may show significant influence later on during analysis. The uncertainty and fuzziness of relationship among various enablers can be conveniently handled by FMICMAC and expert opinions can easily be captured. This research will help medical tourism decision makers to select right enablers for the growth of medical tourism in India.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between tourism sector development and poverty reduction in India using annual data from 1970 to 2018. The paper attempts to answer the critical question: Is tourism pro-poor in India?

Stationarity properties of the series are checked by using the ADF unit root test. The paper uses the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bound testing approach to cointegration to examine the existence of long-run relationships; error-correction mechanism for the short-run dynamics, and Granger non-causality test to test the direction of causality.

The cointegration test confirms a long-run relationship between tourism development and poverty reduction for India. The ARDL test results suggest that tourism development and economic growth reduces poverty in both the long run and the short run. Furthermore, inflation had a negative and significant short-run impact on the poverty reduction variable. The causality test confirms that there is a positive and unidirectional causality running from tourism development to poverty reduction confirming that tourism development is pro-poor in India.

This study implies that poverty in India can be reduced by tourism sector growth and price stability. For a fast-growing economy with respect to economic growth and tourism sector growth, this may have far-reaching implications toward inclusive growth in India.

This paper is the first of its kind to empirically examine the causal relationship between tourism sector development and poverty reduction in India using modern econometric techniques.

The present paper aims to analyse who actually benefits from the policies to promote international trade in healthcare services through medical tourism in India. It also assesses the implications of unfettered and unchecked medical tourism for public health policy-making.

The research methodology adopted in this paper is inter-disciplinary (socioeconomic and legal) and includes a mix of doctrinal and empirical qualitative research.

The present paper argues that in the absence of any baseline data in the public domain on inbound traffic of tourists visiting India on medical tourism, it is difficult to assess and evaluate the private sector claims and that the absence of any format for data collection, management and analysis results in questionable accountability and institutional fragmentation and non-coordination. Furthermore, it results in asymmetrical policy-making in areas like international trade, which may have unintended negative effects for public health.

The research findings of the present paper will also assist other developing countries considering to promote medical tourism to learn lessons from India’s experiences.

The present paper uses the qualitative empirical research conducted by the author to analyse the state of affair of medical tourism in India.