Entrepreneurship and Its Development in a Sphere of Religious Tourism.

In a non-Western context, this paper demonstrates how indigenous religious entrepreneurs drive religious tourism. It explains religious tourism as a natural progression of traditional pilgrimage economy, where entrepreneurship arises from socio- cultural and ritual exchanges and knowledge of religious protocols and procedures between indigenous religious functionaries and visitors, building on the case study of Vrindavan, an emerging religious tourism destination in India. Religious entrepreneurs innovate, create new products, and expand the cultural economy of rituals and performances to meet the demands of the burgeoning tourism industry by utilizing religious hegemony, social status, and networks. The tendency to view such entrepreneurship as "informal" not only shields them from most laws and regulations, but it also undermines their contribution to the preservation of the "religious," which is religious tourism's most valuable resource