SEARCHING FOR JEWISH ANSWERS IN INDIAN RESORTS: The Postmodern Traveler

The paper aims to contribute to the debate concerning the analytical value of fixed categories and argues that the construction of such categories is problematic. It investigates aspects of what cannot be classified either as “pure” travel or as typical pilgrimage or religious tourism, and argues that these and other definitions and are no longer suitable for examining a touristic experience we see as complex, full of contradictions, and—in other words—postmodern. We will adopt an emic perspective in order to learn about the tourists’ views and self-perception, abandoning the more etic approach that has usually been adopted in tourism study and research.