The consecration ceremony of the Ram temple on Monday has put the ancient city of Ayodhya in the spotlight as the next big religious tourism hotspot. Being home to diverse cultures and religions, India has always been big on religious tourism. Think about the popular temple ghats in Varanasi to the tomb of Khawaja Moinuddin Chishti at Ajmer Sharif and the Golden temple in Punjab.
Religious tourism is estimated to be the biggest segment within India’s tourism umbrella, and according to SOTC Travel, a tourism firm, has clocked a near 40% on-year growth last year. Sensing growth potential, the government has also launched initiatives to improve last-mile infrastructure at prominent pilgrimage and heritage destinations.
Religious India
Most Indians believe in God’s existence, shows a 2021 survey by US-based Pew Research Center. It’s common to devote time and energy to religious practices. Urban Indians are more religious: the ones who engage in religious practices spend about 67 minutes a day on them, compared to 61 minutes in rural India, shows data from the government’s Time Use Survey. The Tirupati temple, one of the few sites to release regular data on footfalls, has already had over 1.3 million visitors since the start of this year.
Flying to pray
While data for actual footfalls is not easily available, the tourism boom is likely evident from passenger counts at relatively smaller airports that largely cater to pilgrimage spots. Footfalls at airports in Shirdi, Gaya, Aurangabad, Amritsar and other places with religious interests have sharply risen in the past five years, faster than the pan-India air passenger growth. The interest and demand around religious tourism could also be seen from the recent runaway rise in air fares to Ayodhya ahead of the consecration.
State push
Right in its first year in power, the Narendra Modi government launched the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) to develop tourism around selected religious sites through financial aid to states. A total of 73 destinations—some little-known, and nearly a third of them in the north-east—have been identified, and funds of ₹1,629 crore have been sanctioned for 46 projects.
Eighteen of the approved projects alone are expected to generate 2.5 million jobs, the government estimates. The scheme was renamed PRASHAD after being merged with a similar scheme for heritage sites in 2017 (the ‘H’ stands for ‘heritage’).
Ripe for business
The rising religious fervour could spell an opportunity for businesses to tap into newer markets. Sectors that could benefit from a rise in religious tourism include hospitality, fast-moving consumer goods, quick-service restaurant chains and infrastructure-related ones. How will India’s tourism boom shape up? Only God (and the myriad devotees) can tell!