Spiritual hosting: An exploration of the interplay between spiritual identities and tourism

The facilitation of tourism experiences based on shared ideology is increasingly being seen to contribute to tourism worldwide. However, these studies have not considered informal networks that promote shared religious or spiritual ideology, such as that offered by the New Zealand HIT (Hosting Israeli Travellers) network. Whilst pilgrimage for spiritual goals has been given considerable attention by tourism researchers, these studies have exclusively focused on religion and spirituality as a motivation among travellers, rather than hosts or the effect of hosts' spiritual motivations on the host-tourist encounter. Drawing on exploratory qualitative research applying the Value-Stretch Gap-Analysis Model, this paper analyses the ideological characteristics of the New Zealand HIT network and provides insights into the motivations of HIT hosts. As such, this paper seeks to contribute insights into the interplay between tourism and spiritual identities by exploring the conceptual power of faith and spirituality in potentially shaping tourism production and consumption. The notion of spiritual hosting is introduced as an appropriate conceptualisation of the performance and construction of hosted experiences facilitated by the HIT network in New Zealand.