India is known as the land of many dialects, cuisines and religions. Religion has always played a huge role in India’s development, economy and politics. But today we will discuss tourism. According to experts, social media, easy accessibility, unique cultural experiences and other factors have contributed to the rise of spiritual or religious tourism in India.
The vast nation with temples, mosques, monasteries, Gurudwaras and other religious shrines, witness millions of people flocking to their respective places of worship to seek blessings. From the holy ghats of Varanasi, to Bodh Gaya to Ajmer Sharif to Golden Temple, pilgrimage tourism adds up to the economy of the states and tourism boards.
According to reports, 1,433 million domestic tourists visited places of pilgrimage in India, in 2022. About 6.64 million foreign tourists visited India to visit these religious tourist spots. This number rose about 60 % from the previous year, i.e. 2021, when the numbers stood at 677 million for domestic pilgrims and 1.05 million for foreigners.
According to data released by the Ministry of Tourism, pilgrimage tourism earned ₹ 1,34,543 crore in 2022, as compared to ₹ 65,070 crore in 2021.
Tourism experts say that in 2023, 70% of Indian travellers have shown interest in spiritual getaways which include meditation and mindfulness.
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To push pilgrimage and spiritual tourism in the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced schemes like PRASAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive) in 2015. Under the PRASAD Scheme, 41 religious sites from 25 states were identified for development in the country.
Some of these sites include Amaravati and Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh; Patna and Gaya, Bihar, Dwarka and Somnath, Gujarat, Gurudwara Nada Saheb, Panchkula, Haryana, Hazratbal and Katra, Jammu & Kashmir, Deoghar and Parasnath, Jharkhand, Puri, Odisha, Amritsar, Punjab, Ajmer, Rajasthan, Kanchipuram and Vellankani, Tamil Nadu, Tripura Sundari, Tripura, Varanasi and Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, Uttarakhand and Belur, West Bengal.
Till now the projects that have been completed under this scheme are Kashi Vishwanath in Varanasi, Mahakaleshwar Jyotirling in Ujjain and Somnath, Kedarnath in Uttarakhand.
The divine shrine of Kashi Vishwanath Temple has now been restored and beautified under the Kashi Vishwanath Dham project by the government. The temple area has been expanded to about 5 lakh square feet, which was earlier just 3000 square feet. Now it will be able to accommodate 50,000-75,000 devotees at a time inside the temple and the premises.
The first phase of the redevelopment of Mahakaleshwar Jyotirling in Ujjain has been completed under the Mahakal Maharaj Mandir Parisar Vistar Yojna. This cost around ₹ 350 crore and is expected to increase the footfall of pilgrims from 1.50 crore to three crore.
One of the biggest projects expected to be completed by next year is the ₹ 20,000 crore Ayodhya project.
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The hospitality industry has seen huge growth due to the demand for spiritual and religious tourism. As usually believed to be popular among the older generation or the Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) and Generation X (between 1965 and 1980), religious tourism is now attracting millenials and Gen Z alike post COVID, according to industry experts.
As spiritual tourism in India is growing immensely, the hospitality and tourism industry is aware that they cannot restrict themselves just to religion, and thus, have extended towards mindfulness, yoga and meditation and added adventure packages to cater to youngsters.
More and more customised tour packages are being introduced to cater to such travellers in places like Rishikesh, Katra, Varanasi, among others.
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