Non secular or faith-based tourism to holy websites or locations of worship is without doubt one of the oldest types of journey. As per the UNWTO, 300-400 million vacationers traveled for spiritual functions yearly globally earlier than the pandemic. Non secular tourism has been a big contributor to the tourism business in India, the land of various spiritual beliefs and practices.
Every year, the quite a few spiritual vacationer locations in India draw a number of home and worldwide guests, usually greater than different in style vacationer locations within the nation. As an example, the graph beneath offers an outline of the variety of guests to a few of the in style spiritual locations in India compared with Agra which is house to the Taj Mahal – one of many Seven Wonders of the World and probably the most visited monument within the nation. From 2016 to 2019, Haridwar had been attracting two occasions the variety of guests as Agra. Even the variety of guests to Vrindavan has been persistently rising with 2019 seeing 1.5 occasions the guests as in comparison with Agra.
Variety of Guests: Key Non secular Locations vs. Agra
The next components have pushed the expansion of spiritual tourism in India lately:
Each Central and State Governments in India have devised a number of schemes to spice up spiritual tourism. The Central Authorities, as an illustration, has launched the Nationwide Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Religious, Heritage Augmentation Drive aptly abbreviated as PRASHAD, for the holistic improvement of recognized pilgrimage locations as growing spiritual websites requires a distinct focus in comparison with different vacationer locations. Aside from offering fashionable facilities, it is usually vital to watch how a spiritual vacationer interacts and seeks new experiences at spiritual locations. The PRASHAD Scheme recognized a number of challenges – the dearth of infrastructure like price range resorts, roads, final mile connectivity, sewage, hygiene and cleanliness, strong waste administration, lack of expertise, and growing a code of etiquette to be noticed by spiritual vacationers. Amongst different issues, the scheme set tips for growing world-class infrastructure in an built-in method with the collaboration of State Governments, the personal sector, and different stakeholders.
Variety of Locations/Websites Recognized Beneath the PRASHAD Scheme
As per the report, India Tourism Statistics 2021 printed by the Ministry of Tourism, 61 locations/websites throughout 29 states/union territories have been recognized for improvement below this scheme. An quantity of INR 1,210 crores (or INR 12.1 billion) has been sanctioned for 37 initiatives in 24 states for the reason that inception of the scheme until thirty first December 2021.
The State Governments have additionally undertaken a number of initiatives to capitalize on the journey demand at spiritual websites within the state and enhance tourism. As an example, the Uttar Pradesh Authorities has plans to develop a 177 km lengthy Ram Van Gaman Marg which is able to hyperlink locations the place Lord Ram hung out throughout his 14-year exile from Ayodhya. Equally, one other route referred to as the Ram Janaki route shall be widened to a 4-lane highway from Ayodhya to Janakpur in Nepal. These developments together with the under-construction Ram Temple are anticipated to make Ayodhya a big spiritual tourism hub sooner or later. Different vital spiritual initiatives embody the event of the ‘84 kos parikrama routes’ in Mathura – Vrindavan. ISKCON can be reportedly constructing a Sri Krishna Temple in Vrindavan, which when accomplished would be the tallest spiritual monument on the earth. Given ISKCON’s international following, this challenge has the potential to extend Vrindavan’s international visibility as a spiritual vacationer vacation spot.
Growth of infrastructure throughout the nation
Over the previous few years, the Central Authorities has made infrastructure improvement a prime precedence. The federal government’s rising investments in bettering the nation’s highway and rail networks and fostering last-mile connectivity to vacationer locations have been vital components within the phase’s development.
As an example, the Indian Railways is establishing the 327 km lengthy Char Dham Mission to attach the 4 main pilgrimages in Uttarakhand – Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. The worldwide airport at Kushinagar, the Buddhist tourism circuit’s core, would permit vacationers straightforward and direct entry to the Buddhist websites within the area. The development of a global airport at Ayodhya can be at present underway and is anticipated to be operational by December 2023. Equally, originally of 2022, the Central Authorities introduced a number of highway initiatives that can present straightforward and protected transport for pilgrims and vacationers to the temple city of Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Related infrastructure initiatives are underway or being deliberate to enhance last-mile connectivity to different spiritual locations.
Impression of the Pandemic
The COVID-related journey restrictions and closures had a big influence on spiritual tourism, simply as they did on all different tourism segments. As a result of pandemic’s influence, temple cities all through India witnessed a big lower in customer site visitors. Nonetheless, spiritual tourism is much less susceptible to financial downturns and has recovered rapidly as restrictions have been eased.
A latest survey carried out by Thomas Cook dinner India-SOTC discovered that 55% of the respondents took a spiritual/religious tour or journey as quickly as they might. This development in demand could be attributed to a reactionary response of people that have lived by means of one of the vital traumatic occasions in latest human historical past. Folks longing to precise their gratitude and searching for solace in spirituality have been thronging in style spiritual and religious locations across the nation for the reason that journey restrictions have been eased. As per latest media stories, the variety of individuals visiting in style spiritual websites has greater than doubled put up the pandemic. As an example, the Vaishno Devi temple is receiving 32,000 to 40,000 pilgrims every day, up from 10,000 to fifteen,000 throughout the identical interval previous to the pandemic. In the meantime, at the least one lakh individuals go to the Golden Temple in Amritsar day by day, which is far increased than within the pre-pandemic interval. An analogous phenomenon has been seen within the south on the Guruvayur Temple in Kerala, the place day by day guests vary from 6,000 to 7,000, in comparison with the pre-pandemic tally of 4,000.
Challenges and Alternatives for Resorts
A big part of spiritual vacationers is midscale or financial system vacationers. Many of the lodging demand at these locations is met by dharmshalas or visitor homes managed by the temple trusts or by native unbranded standalone resorts. The graph beneath offers a breakup of the branded and unbranded keys in a few of the spiritual locations within the nation:
Resort Keys at Key Non secular Locations (as of 31st December 2021)
The proportion of branded keys within the above-mentioned locations is lower than 50% of the full high quality lodge room provide. Branded lodge operators have solely just lately acknowledged this big alternative and at the moment are establishing resorts in these spiritual locations to faucet into this demand. Out of the full branded lodge room provide of over 1,100 keys within the 4 locations talked about above, roughly 160 keys (14%) grew to become operational within the yr 2021.
Normally, pilgrim places don’t appeal to guests for a couple of evening. This makes it crucial to plan leisure infrastructure within the resorts at these places for them to turn into in style household trip locations. Rishikesh is a perfect instance of a spiritual vacation spot that has turn into in style for a number of different actions like journey sports activities and wellness. In some places, there’s a scope for luxurious gamers to innovate and supply numerous different leisure actions to permit vacationers to mix their spiritual actions with leisurely holidays. Resort chains are leveraging this and have been growing luxurious resorts in and round Rishikesh. Creating resorts at these locations include a set of challenges like restrictions on serving non-vegetarian meals and alcohol. Nonetheless, it additionally offers alternatives to develop massive banquet areas as guests may wish to host spiritual occasions like weddings at these holy locations.
The spiritual tourism market is at present dominated by home vacationers. Nonetheless, efficient advertising and marketing campaigns can enhance international vacationers’ data of those places, which when mixed with improved infrastructure might help put a few of the Indian spiritual locations on par with worldwide spiritual locations like Vatican Metropolis or Mecca, supporting the phase’s future development.
