Religious tourism is ₹This will reach Rs 5,900 crore by 2028 and 140 million temporary and permanent jobs will be created by 2030, according to a Financial Express report.
Daniel D'Souza, president and country head of holidays at SOTC Travel, told Financial Expenses that the demand for pilgrimage tours to Ayodhya and other sites associated with the life and times of Lord Rama has increased five-fold year-on-year. “We have witnessed strong growth in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in regional India and these high-growth markets are driving demand for our Ramayana Trail portfolio,” he said.
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Prakar Mishra, the tourism director of Uttar Pradesh, told the Financial Express that Ayodhya, which now has 24 flights a day, is seeing a huge influx of tourists. Similarly, “Kashi Vishwanath temple in Varanasi saw a record number of donations in March, with donations increasing by 1.2%. ₹“At Rs 111.4 crore, it is the highest for a single month,” Mishra added.
According to the article, a record 9.56 million pilgrims visited Varanasi in March this year.
“The average expenditure per person at pilgrimage sites is ₹“It's 2,500 and there is a possibility it could spike further,” Giresh Vasudev Kulkarni, founder of Temple Connect, a platform providing information about darshan, told the Financial Express.
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According to the article, Thomas Cook (India) has seen growing interest from younger travellers, millennials and Gen Z, and has launched “Pilgrimage Plus Tours” for them, combining guide-storytellers, sattvic food, on-site experiences like darshan, culinary trails and outdoor adventures like river rafting and bungee jumping.
According to data from MakeMyTrip's India Travel Trends Report, searches for destinations with or near religious sites have increased by 97% over the last two years (2023 vs. 2021).
As per the report, searches in 2023 compared to 2022 have increased by 585% in Ayodhya, 359% in Ujjain, 343% in Badrinath, 329% in Amarnath, 322% in Kedarnath, 223% in Mathura, 193% in Dwarkadhish, 181% in Shirdi, 117% in Haridwar and 114% in Bodh Gaya.
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This is also true for NRIs. “Many NRIs like to visit Char Dham on charter flights from the US or the UK,” Santosh Sharma, founder of BookMyJet and co-founder and CEO of Foresee Aviation, which offers private charter flights, told Financial Express. “The areas where there is demand are Varanasi, Ujjain and Hampi.”
According to the article, the Char Dham Yatra in Haridwar and Rishikesh has already attracted 1.4 million visitors, with an average weekly registration of over 25,000.
