A multi-criteria evaluation of India’s spiritual tourism destinations through the MACBETH technique

Purpose This study aims to construct a set of evaluation criteria and assess the competitiveness of spiritual tourism destinations in India. Given India’s rich spiritual heritage and the growing demand for transformative travel experiences, the research seeks to understand what attributes make a destination spiritually compelling and competitive in a global tourism landscape. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts a hybrid qualitative-quantitative methodology, integrating cognitive mapping and the measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique (MACBETH) approach to identify and rank the most critical attributes influencing spiritual tourism. A panel of ten multidisciplinary experts contributed insights, which were structured into fundamental point of view (FPV) categories. These were then evaluated using M-MACBETH software to derive criteria weights and rank destinations based on attractiveness. Findings The analysis reveals that spiritual and religious activities, and cultural and historical significance are the most influential factors in shaping the appeal of spiritual tourism destinations. Conversely, safety and security, while essential, was perceived as a basic expectation rather than a differentiating factor. Among the 30 destinations assessed, the Golden Temple in Amritsar emerged as the most competitive spiritual destination, followed by Shirdi. The criteria demonstrated strong reliability through sensitivity and robustness analyses. Originality/value This study pioneers the integrated application of the cognitive mapping and MACBETH methodology within the domain of spiritual tourism in India. The criteria’s emphasis on both emotional and infrastructural factors provides comprehensive understanding of what drives spiritual destination competitiveness, making it highly relevant for future tourism strategy and planning.