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ABSTRACTThis study aims to offer insights on spiritual benefits sought by a special interest market (spiritual tourists). Data for this study is anchored in a purposeful selection of retreat centres, that offer a mix of reflective and inspirational spaces, in a world renowned spiritual tourism destination (Rishikesh in India). One key objective is to identify significant predictors of spiritual benefits and scrutinise if visitors who indicate interest in sustaining spiritual pursuits or inner transformation differ, from others, in the type of spiritual benefits they seek. Furthermore, this study offers suggestions on how the retreat centres can optimise the spiritual benefits and ignite interest in pursuing sustained inner transformation. This study is unique in that it suggests a sustained transformation continuum for spiritual retreat centres.

In the last few decades, there has been sharp increase in consumption of energy around the globe. Due to finite sources of fossil fuels and rise in exhaust emissions resulting into global warming, the researchers have shifted to the petroleum fuel alternatives. The present work considers the different engine input factors (i.e., blending ratio and load) while evaluating the different performance parameters (brake thermal efficiency), combustion (brake-specific fuel consumption), and emission parameters (nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbon) while using waste cooking oil biodiesel in a four-stroke single-cylinder diesel engine. A hybrid RSM coupled with NSGA-II technique has been considered for optimizing the performance, combustion, and emission characteristics. The novelty of this work is the application of NSGA II, which has been successfully applied in the simultaneous optimization of brake-specific fuel consumption, brake thermal efficiency, and different emission parameters, viz. carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, and hydrocarbon. Five optimum combinations have been evaluated from the 39 Pareto solutions set, and their confirmation tests have also been conducted. From the analysis, the brake thermal efficiency of 31.29% and brake-specific fuel consumption of 0.261 kg/kW-hr along with values of the emissions such as nitrogen oxide: 63.470 ppm, carbon monoxide: 0.085% and hydrocarbons: 20.724 ppm have been achieved. The results are very much within the acceptable limits which confirms the feasibility for the use of waste cooking oil biodiesel in the four-stroke diesel engine.