Image this: A sea of fifty million individuals, all collected in an space of 4,000 hectares for one function – to rejoice the holy Hindu gathering of Mahakumbh 2025. In its 45-day run, the once-in-144-years pageant was visited by over 660 million devotees, effectively above projections for 400 million.
For twenty-four-year-old Kaustubh Kambiri, the journey to Mahakumbh was a chance to go to the historic pageant, in addition to discover the various tradition that finds its roots within the Indian hinterlands.
Kambiri went to Prayagraj for the pageant and mixed it with visits to Lucknow, Varanasi, and Ayodhya.
“I met individuals from all walks of life throughout the go to to Mahakumbh, after which on the Kashi Vishwanath Temple, and Ram Temple in Ayodhya. It was an effective way to get a glimpse into the range inside India, a really immersive journey expertise that went past simply spirituality.”
Mahakumbh is only one instance of a development that has emerged as a key pressure in India’s journey business, and resorts, airways, and on-line journey companies are all taking observe.
Contemplate a few of the alternatives:
- India is the third-largest supply of non-domestic journey for Saudi Arabia’s Hajj pilgrimage after Indonesia and Pakistan, in line with Statista.
- Inside India, there are lots of non secular websites for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians.
- In 2024, 512,000 devotees went on the annual Amarnath Yatra trek to the Hindu shrine of Amarnath Temple in Jammu and Kashmir, the best prior to now 12 years, in line with Indian residence minister Amit Shah.
- The Sikh non secular web site of the Golden Temple in Amritsar is visited by about 100,000 devotees each day.
- The Ajmer Dargah Sharif is taken into account to be among the many holiest Muslim shrines in India. An estimated 30,000 pilgrims go to the shrine each day. The Tirupati Balaji Temple in Andhra Pradesh is visited by a median of 70,000 Hindu devotees a day.
- Final 12 months, Goa held the exposition of the relics of St Francis Xavier for public viewing, an occasion that comes each 10 years and an essential one for Catholics throughout the globe. Over 45 days, there have been greater than 8 million guests, in line with Goa every day Gomantak Occasions.
What’s extra, the development spans generations, as information for the Mahakumbh from on-line journey company Ixigo reveals. “Notably, younger travellers aged 20-25 make up 26% of complete bus bookings, surpassing older age teams,” Ixigo Group CEO Aloke Bajpai informed Skift. Travellers aged between 28-43 years made up 31% of the full practice bookings made to Prayagraj.
Large Enterprise’ Greatest Beneficiaries
Spiritual tourism in India has surged lately and it accounts for over 60% of home journey within the nation, in line with a report from KPMG. In keeping with actual property companies agency Colliers, religious tourism holds a 30% market share within the nation’s general journey and tourism sector.
In keeping with a report final Could by the federal government of India’s business analysis physique, India Model Fairness Basis (IBEF), the religious tourism phase in India is predicted to be valued at $59 billion by 2028. “By 2030, greater than 100 million individuals might be gainfully employed by way of momentary and everlasting jobs pushed by India’s religious tourism alone,” IBEF added.
A report by Colliers recognized seven hubs for non secular tourism: Amritsar in Punjab; Ayodhya and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh; Dwarka in Gujarat; Puri in Odisha; Shirdi in Maharashtra; and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.
Journey business gamers are transferring to capitalize on this development. Indian Accommodations Firm (IHCL) has signed 4 properties every in Varanasi and Ayodhya throughout completely different manufacturers together with its flagship luxurious providing Taj, finances model Ginger, and its reimagined Gateway model.
In IHCL’s newest earnings name, Managing Director and CEO Puneet Chhatwal stated that together with live shows and prolonged wedding ceremony season, the Mahakumbh gathering was anticipated to drive profitability for the corporate throughout the ongoing quarter.
The IBEF report stated that IHCL had 66 resorts both operational or underneath growth in religious locations, and it additionally intends to increase its portfolio in these areas additional.
For on-line journey firm MakeMyTrip, religious tourism has emerged as a progress driver. “Pilgrimage journey occurs year-round. There’s no season for it,” MakeMyTrip Co-founder, Group CEO and Director, Rajesh Magow stated within the firm’s most up-to-date earnings name. Searches for non secular locations on its platform elevated by 46% in 2024 in comparison with 2022, he informed Skift.
“Locations like Ayodhya, Varanasi, and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh have led this progress, with searches rising by over 60% in 2024 as in contrast from 2023, whereas others like Ujjain, Dwarka, Katra, Guruvayoor, and Amarnath have additionally recorded constant double-digit progress. Within the October-December quarter within the ongoing fiscal, pilgrimage locations accounted for over 10% of our complete room nights bought on the platform.”
Indian resort chain Sarovar Accommodations signed a brand new resort in Nepal originally of the 12 months. The nation is a well-liked vacation spot for non secular tourism and India is its greatest supply market. India accounted for near 27% of the guests to Lumbini in 2023.
Exploring India’s energy, affect, and evolution
March 17-18, 2025 – DELHI
The aviation business can also be following religious vacationers. Final 12 months, because the Ram Temple in Ayodhya was consecrated, Air India Specific, IndiGo, and SpiceJet all commenced operations to the town.
Bodh Gaya, the religious vacation spot the place Lord Buddha is believed to have achieved enlightenment, can also be a significant attraction for inbound tourism. Final 12 months, Air Asia and Thai Airways introduced flight schedules from Thailand to Bodh Gaya in October, whereas Bhutan Airways and Drukair commenced flights from Bhutan.
Two Myanmar-based airways additionally introduced flights for the 2024-25 vacationer season. In the meantime, constitution flights from Hanoi in Vietnam have been operated to the Bodh Gaya airport.
In keeping with official information from the state authorities of Uttar Pradesh, over 164 million vacationers visited Ayodhya, a three-fold enhance in comparison with 2023. In the meantime, the non secular websites of Varanasi and Mathura have been visited by 110 million and 90 million guests, respectively.
Within the run as much as the Mahakumbh, 81 new flights have been began to Prayagraj to accommodate the incoming devotees. In December 2024, Prayagraj had direct connectivity to eight cities, which has now elevated to 17 cities.
In 2024, non secular journey in India witnessed a gradual progress of 30-40% month-on-month, in line with on-line journey firm Ixigo. Non secular tourism additionally boosted the corporate’s earnings within the October-December quarter in 2024, because it famous that bookings to religious locations equivalent to Varanasi, Gaya, Shirdi, Puri, Haridwar, and Vaishno Devi have been up 100-150% year-on-year.
Infrastructure Growth
Regardless of the massive potential and a major income, non secular tourism websites should not very vacationer pleasant. Most of those websites are historic, and the neighboring locality just isn’t tailored for main vacationer inflow, resulting in overcrowding and lack of cleanliness.
Even the Mahakumbh, as an illustration, lacked sufficient measures for the aged or otherwise abled guests, at the same time as most different vacationer facilities have been in place.
In an effort to increase this phase, the Indian authorities has been investing in infrastructure growth, with non-public gamers additionally innovating.
Exploring India’s energy, affect, and evolution
March 17-18, 2025 – DELHI
The federal government launched Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Non secular Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) scheme in 2014 with the give attention to growing and figuring out pilgrimage websites throughout India for enriching the non secular tourism expertise. Since then, a complete of 46 tasks underneath the scheme have been sanctioned throughout the nation for a complete accepted value of over INR 16 billion ($185 million). As of November final 12 months, 23 of those tasks have been accomplished, in line with an replace from the ministry of tourism.
The temple cities of Varanasi and Ujjain have been additionally revamped to enhance vacationer expertise. After the event of the Kashi-Vishwanath hall in Varanasi accomplished in December 2021, a complete of 130 million pilgrims visited the pilgrim metropolis in 2022 and 2023. It is usually planning to implement the identical mannequin in Mathura quickly.
Funds have additionally been allotted for growing key Buddhist non secular websites. Whereas asserting the Union Funds final 12 months, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated India will develop two temple locations in Bihar, certainly one of which is the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, the place Lord Buddha is claimed to have achieved enlightenment.
This 12 months, Sitharaman stated that India will prioritize tourism associated to the life and instances of Lord Buddha, a revered deity within the close by Southeast Asian international locations. These efforts might help increase inbound tourism. In 2023, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, Lumbini in Nepal, alone acquired near 1 million vacationers, together with Nepal nationals.
In 2021, Lord Buddha’s place of dying Kushinagar additionally received a world airport to facilitate world tourism from devotees to the town.
The Position of Tech in Spiritual Tourism
Non-public gamers are additionally introducing completely different options to cater to this market.
Temple Join (India), a personal initiative that provides postgraduate diplomas in temple administration, additionally held the second Worldwide Temples Conference and Expo (ITCX) in February. The expo aimed to debate important points round temple tourism, together with security, safety and surveillance protocols, catastrophe administration, sanitation and hygiene, and integration of greater than 75 high-tech improvements within the temple and religion tech area.
MakeMyTrip has launched options for its lodging reserving platform designed to enhance accessibility and comfort for vacationers visiting religious hubs known as “Cherished by Devotees.” The curated assortment of greater than 450 resorts and homestays contains wheelchair-friendly lodging, proximity filters for non secular websites, and vegetarian meal choices.
Ixigo launched a devoted microsite for Mahakumbh to assist vacationers plan their visits. The web site supplied data on logistics, rituals, key occasions, and actions to simply navigate the pageant. “It enabled devotees to ebook resorts, tents, flights, trains, and buses multi function place. Powered by our AI-driven journey planning software PLAN, the web site additionally supplied personalised itineraries tailor-made to completely different preferences, together with heritage walks, family-friendly actions, and photogenic spots,” Bajpai stated.
These websites are additionally integrating know-how to rework how pilgrims entry details about the websites, the KPMG report stated. Whereas journey bloggers are enjoying an essential position in serving to devotees uncover new websites, post-Covid, digital pilgrimages of those websites have additionally surged within the type of stay streaming of non secular ceremonies, on-line viewing of deities, and 360-degree digital excursions.
The curiosity of youth in religious tourism is resulting in a diversified method of together with preservation of those websites, education schemes, and immersive cultural experiences to the idea of non secular tourism.
The youthful inhabitants, in its quest for experiences, exploration and immersion, is realizing the position religious locations are enjoying in showcasing Indian variety. Because the 24-year-old Kambiri places it, “If we will discover individuals and communicate to them to know native lives when visiting mountains and different vacationer locations, why cannot we do that at non secular locations and in addition find out about our personal roots and tradition on the identical time?”
Exploring India’s energy, affect, and evolution
March 17-18, 2025 – DELHI
