Farooq Haq

The significance of partnership as a marketing strategy for Islamic spiritual tourism

Purpose – This paper aims to highlight the significance of partnership among stakeholders as a marketing strategy for Islamic spiritual tourism. Partnership as a marketing strategy is studied by interviewing stakeholders on the supply side of Islamic tourism. Only recently, Islamic spiritual tourism has been identified, not recognised yet, as a growing segment of Islamic tourism that needs to be effectively marketed. Design/methodology/approach – Convenient sampling was used in this exploratory research to select and interview tourism operators selling in-bound and out-bound Islamic spiritual tourism in Australia and Pakistan. Cross-case content analysis was used to identify critical themes related to marketing Islamic spiritual tourism. Findings – Three issues emerged from the content analysis in this study: political, commercial and religious. The management of these three issues is found necessary to effectively build and implement horizontal partnerships among stakeholders on the supply side in Islami...

Islamic spiritual tourism: an innovative marketing framework

This conceptual paper presents an innovative marketing framework to recognise Islamic spiritual tourism as a significant type of Islamic tourism. The presentation of the theoretical conceptualisation of Islamic spiritual tourism is based on the study of literature and observations of innovative tourism business practices. The literature on Islamic, spiritual and innovative tourism marketing was reviewed. The innovative marketing framework suggests that Islamic spiritual tourism is a subset of Islamic and halal tourism, while pilgrimage and Muslim religious tourism are its subsets. This unique study emphasises upon the acceptance of the market for Islamic spiritual tourism that is a combination of religious travels among Muslims such as Hajj, Umrah, Rihla and Ziyara. Tourism marketers could focus on this niche market of Muslim spiritual tourists to design their innovative marketing strategies. An empirical study of attitudes and behaviour of Muslims engaged in Islamic spiritual tourism is a palpable future research direction.

Branding spiritual tourism as an innovation for peace between India and Pakistan

The purpose of this paper is to present the innovation of spiritual tourism as a peace brand to be marketed between India and Pakistan facing non-friendly relations. This study presents an opportunity to improve social, economic and political relations between India and Pakistan. Data was collected by conducting interviews with spiritual tourists in both countries by both authors. Cross-case content analysis of all interview transcripts was conducted separately and results were triangulated. Themes that emerged from the data analysis supporting peace as a branding strategy to market spiritual tourism were: shared history, culture, food and language connections, similar appreciation for aesthetics and teachings of peace embedded in all local religious traditions. Samples in both countries were not representative of the population that highlighted a major limitation. This research can be replicated to apply innovation to market spiritual tourism by branding the product as peace among countries with sensitive relationships.

Is Spiritual Tourism an Innovation in Tourism for India and Pakistan

This conceptual paper attempts to build on the argument that innovation in tourism is a less focused topic in business and academic research. The growing interest in the practice and business of spiritual tourism cannot be ignored. This interest motivates the research aiming to present spiritual tourism as an innovation in tourism, specifically in India and Pakistan. In this unique study, the innovation in tourism is appreciated and analyzed from dimensions of product, process, and people, falling under the umbrella of architectural and revolutionary innovation. Hence the three elements of the tourism product: people, places, and events are adapted to align with the spiritual tourism as a tourism innovation. India and Pakistan are selected as the two countries since both carry the status of multifaith-purpose spiritual tourism destinations. This original research emphasizes on recognizing spiritual tourism as an innovation in tourism based on its products and services illustrating architectural and revolutionary innovation. The paper concludes with a matrix mapping elements of spiritual tourism with the dimensions of tourism innovation, hence filling a gap in the literature on tourism innovation and spiritual tourism. A relevant empirical study of travelers visiting India and Pakistan for spiritual tourism is a palpable future study.

Challenges and opportunities for promoting Dubai as a medical tourism hub

Background: Although a large body of evidence exists on the effect of long-term exercise training program on pulmonary function, much less attention has been dedicated to investigating the acute effect of short-term exercise program on improving the ventilatory function. Objective: The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of short term high intensity aerobic exercise on lung function in adults to start first step in establishing an evidence based exercise program designed for chest patients who can only be supervised in short term hospitalization phase. Methods: A pre-post test study design was carried out on thirty healthy men students with their mean age 21.7 ± 1.26 who were enrolled in this study. Every student performed a 20-minute high-intensity monitored stationary arm Ergometer exercise and ventilatory function tests was performed in order to measure forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume at the end of the first second (FEV1), FEV1/FVC ratio and peak expiratory flow rate PEFR before and after the exercise. Results: The result showed significant increase in the mean value of FEV1, and a non-significant difference in the mean values of (FVC), FEV1/FVC and PEFR. Conclusion: A single high intensity arm Ergometer exercise sitting has a significant effect on improving forced expiratory volume in the normal adult.3 Abstract: Immunological techniques have been developed over years using different Fasciola antigens for diagnosis of fascioliasis and as to replace the parasitological techniques which are time consuming and usually lack sensitivity and reproducibility. In this study, Fasciola gigantica purified metacercarial antigen was early detected in sera of infected sheep using both sandwich and Dot-ELISA in order to evaluate the efficacy of purified metacercarial antigen performance in diagnosing early fascioliasis. This work was conducted on 150 sheep blood samples which were classified according to their parasitological manifestation into 110 sera infected with fascioliasis, 20 infected with other different parasites and 20 healthy control sera. The sensitivity and specificity of sandwich ELISA compared to those of the Dot-ELISA were 92.7% and 93.7% versus 95.5% and 97.5%, respectively. On the other hand, the parasitological examination recorded 68.6% sensitivity and 100% specificity. The purified F. gigantica metaceraial antigens have shown a powerful antigencity for early immune-diagnosis of fascioliasis in both ELISA techniques, however, Dot- ELISA was trouble-free, more sensitive, greater specific and affordable as well as feasible test; the features recommended for any technique to be used in detecting the light infection, particularly, at the early stages that precede the onset of parasite eggs.Several factors may contribute to the rising of water-pipe smoking. Objectives: Several factors may contribute to the rising of water pipe smoking. The objectives of our study were to determine the prevalence, individual and social factors of water pipe smoking among undergraduate medical students of King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive/analytical study was done among a representative sample of 408 male and female undergraduate medical students. A simple random sampling method was used to select the participants. Aself-administered questionnaire was constructed based on the National Youth Tobacco Survey in the United States. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to analyze the data. Results: The prevalence of water-pipe smoking among medical students was 11.8% for males and 2% for females. Factors associated with water pipe smoking were water pipe smoking among siblings (OR=6.6; 95% CI = 2.3 – 18.2),parents (OR=4.6; 95% CI = 1.7 – 12.0), and closefriend (OR=65.7; 95% CI = 8.8 – 490.0). The odds of water pipe smoking among the 5th year students were five times higher (OR = 5.5; 95% CI = 1.4 – 24.6) compared to other years. Students whose parents were widowed had 4.2-fold (95% CI = 1.213.7) odds of water pipe smoking compared to students with full families. Conclusion: Social determinants, such as water pipe smoking among siblings, parents and close friends, as well as individual factors such as years of a study and parental marital status were associated with water pipe smoking among undergraduate medical students. Our finding can potentially improve tobacco control programs in Saudi Arabia and decrease the prevalence of water pipe smoking among students.M tourism has transformed from a cottage industry to a sector experiencing tremendous growth and becoming a focus area for governments regionally.As the coming rise in domestic demand brings strong growth and stability to the health care industry, further expansion into the world market through medical tourism represents an untapped resource that could take the sector to a new level. However, medical tourism is a highly competitive market and the emirate is working to establish itself within a crowded field – namely from South East Asia cities, who are accelerating their push into solidify their position as hubs for medical tourism.The key to entering and establishing a foothold will be from promoting existing strengths and reaching patients across different mediums, on both a continuous basis and during the time of decision making.”Objectives: to assess the Prevalence of anxiety and depression among secondary school students and to compare male and female group Methods: This is an observational cross section study using The sampling technique followed stratified convenient sampling and data was collected using self-administered questionnaires (Arabic version of the symptom revised SCL 90- R). Data was collected from 331 secondary school students between 15 and 18 years old from both genders after raking an informed consent Results: Results show 25.7% of the students had anxiety, On comparing boys and girls,23 boys (10.1%) had anxiety, while 62 (59.6%) of the girls had anxiety. In depression 28.4% is the Prevalence of depression in both genders, on comparing boys and girls, 34 male students (14.9%), while 60 female students (57.7%) had depressive symptoms with strong significance when comparing boys to girls Conclusion: This study analyzed the importance of mental health assessment and follow-up in secondary school students, especially girls. However, further assessment for other co – factors such as socioeconomic differences should be considered.Methods: Using a previously validated questionnaire that comprises 38 questions to assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practices towards blood donation, 469 Saudi adults who attended different shopping malls in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia were interviewed. Based on calculated scores, level of knowledge and attitude of our study cohort were categorized into different groups. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify significant predictors of blood donation.Procedure: A sample of 250 postmenopausal women ranging in age between 45 to 80 years was selected by purposive sampling from various parts of north India (Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh). Anthropometric parameters (height, weight), physiological variables (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate), hypertension (as per JNC VII criteria) and bone mineral density (using dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry at lumbar spine L1-L4) of all the participants were recorded. Findings indicated that 40.4% women were identified with hypertension, out of which 12.8% had normal bone mineral density, 16.4% and 11.2% were osteopenic and osteoporotic respectively.