Learning and teaching is part of meditation, as we are of lifelong learning, it is good that we share knowledge that we gain along the way of this very life. Mr. Anand Krishna had the opportunity to give a lecture as a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Tourism (STP) Sahid Solo, Wednesday, May 16, 2012, with the lecture material “Spiritual Tourism”. This lecture was followed by STP Sahid students majoring in Hospitality and Business Travel.
Spiritual Tourism is a paradigm shift occurring in the field of tourism, which was once based more on money orientation. Money oriented tourism has been proved to have many adverse effects, among others is terrorism. The bombings in Bali that happened 2 times were the result of the ill gained money that we received; that we had not asked the tourists’ background, their views towards life before they actually checked in and we could have prevented such a disaster from happening. But we didn’t do that. We were only concerned on the great amount of money that we thought we could have gained instead of any risks that we should have considered. This money oriented has truly sadly resulted in human and human’s organ trafficking and also drug trafficking in Indonesia.
Money Oriented Tourism is bound to be very short-lived. On the other hand, Spiritual Tourism never knows either high or low season. The season is high all the time.
This potential needs to be taken care of and developed particularly in Solo. Having a look at the example that has happened in Ubud Bali that only because of a movie Eat pray and love, 2010, starring Julia Roberts and the book with the same title written by Elizabeth Gilbert, now you do not see any low season in Ubud. Lots of foreign tourists who come to Ubud and they come to get spiritual experiences. Yes they do. Such tourism will be a great potential to be developed in Solo.
(Reporter: Adrian Kristanto, Photographer: Tunggul Setiawan, Translator: Rahmad Darmawan)
