Spiritual tourism growth comes as a boon for travel companies
spiritual tourism segment in India grew by 35-40% year-on-year in 2023, according to estimates provided by travel majors, and it is expected to get a boost with the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya this month.
Forward travel bookings and queries for Ayodhya are seeing a «strong» response, with flights for January 22 almost 80% booked, said an airline executive. Airline executives pointed out that for short-haul travel, they are expecting about 15% late bookings, primarily in the next five to seven days.
«Some people are avoiding travel on the first day, expecting a rush and they plan to visit later,» the executive cited earlier said, adding that for the whole month, flights are almost 90% full.
He pointed out that there could be some postponement of travel plans and some travellers would prefer travelling by train due to high airfares for January 22, the day of the temple inauguration.
IndiGo and Air India Express had launched flights to Ayodhya immediately after the airport's opening on December 30.
Both airlines now connect Ayodhya to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
Sources said that in February, Akasa Air will launch flights to the temple town from Delhi. «Given the comparatively small visitor base for Ayodhya previously, we see a 5X upside in searches year-on-year and are already recording 4X more bookings as compared with last year,» said MakeMyTrip group CEO Rajesh Magow.
«Expectedly, the duration of January 10-22 is seeing a sharp increase in bookings.»
Magow said, «At the moment, room night bookings in Ayodhya are almost 10% of the top pilgrimage sites in the country, so the potential for growth is significant. Ayodhya is poised to become one of the major spiritual destinations of the
