Hundreds of thousands of people thronging the Ram temple in Ayodhya within days of its opening is a sign of things to come. A recent Jefferies projection of the temple attracting 50 million tourists— the Vatican attracts 9 million and Mecca 20 million annually—could actually be the case in the years to come. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of annual visitors to Ayodhya is estimated to have risen by 10 million to over 30 million. So, it isn’t difficult to imagine the impetus that a brand new airport, a railway station that has got much beyond a mere facelift, marquee hospitality projects, improved road and digital connectivity are going to add.
Such pilgrimage premium may not just be an Ayodhya story. There is a concerted push to unlock the country’s faith-based tourism potential. Under the Centre’s ‘Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive’ (PRASHAD) scheme, which provides financial assistance for development of spiritually-important sites, a total of `1,629 crore has been sanctioned since 2014-15 for temples, shrines (including the Dargah Hazrat Bal in Kashmir, and infrastructure in Velankanni, Tamil Nadu, which is home to the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health), gurudwaras, etc, across 26 states and Union Territories. A further 26 have been identified.
These will be an important supplement to the states’ own projects. Beyond this, there are the Swadesh Darshan Scheme, which aims to promote tourism in specific regions based on a theme, and the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY) to preserve cultural and religious heritage in popular heritage tourism destinations. But the most important push perhaps comes from the connectivity and other infrastructure projects to allow the masses to easily reach spiritual destinations. Whether it is the NHAI’s `12,000-crore Char Dham highway project in Uttarakhand—though there are concerns over ecology and topography—or the `2,500 crore allocated by the Uttar Pradesh government for infrastructure development in Prayagraj for the 2025 Mahakumbh, spiritual tourism has never had it so big. According to ministry of tourism data, religious tourism is expected to generate 140 million temporary and permanent jobs by 2030.
India has 42 Unesco heritage sites, and most of these are religious centres. And spiritual tourism has the largest share within overall tourism in the country. While overall tourism in terms of revenue and number of tourists has seen a robust recovery from the pandemic-time lows, it is yet to reach the pre-pandemic level. But that seems certain to change with the push to spiritual tourism. One estimate projects the country’s faith-based tourism market to grow at a CAGR of 16.2% from 2023 to 2030.
Sustained world-class infrastructure, hospitality, and a hospitable local population, would be among the key challenges. While the first two are easier to resolve, the third would need continuous sensitisation efforts at the local level and mass awareness drives. That is where the states would have to put their best foot forward. Another, though much more ambitious, vision outlined in a recent SBI Ecowrap report is to develop strategic partnerships for faith-based tourism in other nations in the sub-continent and South East Asia that have shared cultural links. The revival and restoration of heritage spiritual sites, then, would not just earn rich dividends for the economy by itself, but also be a force multiplier for other segments, from aviation to hospitality.