Social media is full of videos of the rush at Kedarnath. The long offline registration centres for the Char Dham yatra in Haridwar and Rishikesh are no different, where over 1.4 million have already visited, and average registrations a week cross 25,000. This year in March, Varanasi saw a record-breaking influx of 9.56 million pilgrims. All hospitality majors are on a signing spree for religious destinations like Katra, Puri and Ayodhya. Such is the surge that religious tourism alone is expected to generate a revenue of Rs 5,900 crore by 2028, creating 140 million temporary and permanent jobs by 2030.
Travel companies show similar trends, with a massive rise in searches and bookings for religious tourism. Residents of tier 2 and 3 cities are especially embracing spiritual journeys, with searches for destinations with or around religious spots growing 97% in the last two years (2023 vs 2021), data from the India Travel Trends Report by MakeMyTrip showed. Searches for Ayodhya grew by 585%, Ujjain by 359% and Badrinath by 343% in 2023 compared with 2022, according to the report. Badrinath showed a 343% surge, Amarnath 329%, Kedarnath 322%, Mathura 223%, Dwarkadhish 193%, Shirdi 181%, Haridwar 117%, and Bodh Gaya 114%.
Prakhar Mishra, director, tourism, Uttar Pradesh, said the state witnessed massive footfalls in Ayodhya, which now has 24 daily flights. “At Varanasi’s Kashi Vishwanath Temple, donations in March broke all records with contributions amounting to Rs 11.14 crore, the highest for any single month,” Mishra added.
Daniel D’souza, president & country head, holidays, SOTC Travel, said they have seen 5x year-on-year demand for pilgrimage tours to Ayodhya and other places associated with the life and times of Lord Ram. “We have witnessed regional India’s tier 2 and 3 cities emerge strongly and these high growth markets are driving demand for our Ramayana trails portfolio,” he added.
Thomas Cook (India) sees a growing interest from younger travellers, millennials and Gen Zs, for whom they have launched ‘pilgrimage plus tours’ coupled with darshans, local experiences such as cuisine trails and outdoor adventures such as river rafting/ bungee jumping, besides a guide-cum-story teller and satvik food.
As per data by Temple Connect, a platform which bridges the gap between temples and devotees by providing up-to-date information on darshans, there is rising interest from millennials and Gen Zs for information on temples, gods and goddesses. “An average spend per person at any pilgrim location has been around Rs 2,500, which is likely to surge even more,” said Giresh Vasudev Kulkarni, founder, Temple Connect.
Even places like Goa, otherwise known for beaches, are promoting spiritual rejuvenation. The state tourism board is promoting Hindu temples and Christian churches integral to the region’s cultural identity, said Suneel Anchipaka, director, tourism, Goa, and managing director at GTDC.
Santosh Sharma, founder of BookMyJet, and co-founder & CEO of Foresee Aviation which offers private air charters, said: “A lot of NRIs like to visit Char Dham from the US and the UK in charters. Places in demand are Varanasi, Ujjain and Hampi.” Sharma is receiving about five religious tourism bookings in a month.
As per data from the ministry of tourism, religious tourism attracted 1,439 million in 2022 and the destinations earned Rs 1.34 trillion in the same year, more than double from 677 million in 2021 and up from Rs 65,070 crore in 2021.
