Varanasi tops the list of religious destinations for bookers across India as the country’s travel industry recovers, according to a report.
Other popular spiritual destinations include - Tirupati, Puri, Amritsar, and Haridwar alongside Shirdi, Rishikesh, Mathura, Mahabaleshwar, and Madurai, noted the a report by OYO.
As per OYO’s booking data analysed between August to October 2022, Varanasi emerged as the top destination with the maximum number of bookings across spiritual destinations in India and observed maximum footfall on August 13, due to the festive holiday season in India. However, the maximum increase in bookings has been observed across Shirdi at 483 per cent, Tirupati at 233 per cent and Puri at 117 per cent.
Country’s zones
The most popular spiritual destination in India, according to a breakdown of the country’s zones, is the North, followed by the South, West, and East. Across the North zone, the most popular destinations include Varanasi, Prayagraj, Amritsar, Haridwar, Katra, and Rishikesh. In South India - Vijayawada, Mysore, Tirupati, Madurai, and Vellore. In the West zone - Shirdi, Mahabaleshwar, Nashik, Ujjain, and Pushkar, and in East - Puri.
Additionally, with an increase in interest towards community experiences across India, a lot of travellers are now looking forward to exploring rich cultural destinations, lesser known locations, royal palaces, and spiritual or wellness destinations, said the report.
Indian Railways
The report also mentioned that the Indian Railways has taken steps to promote religious travel across the country by operating trains like the ‘Swadesh Darshan’, ‘Jagannath Express’, and ‘Ramayana Express’. In addition, many States have implemented legislative measures to encourage cultural travel — the Uttar Pradesh government has rolled out several initiatives to build and promote the Ramayana and Buddhist tourist circuits by investing close to ₹10,000 crore in the tourism sector.
The State governments of Uttarakhand and Kolkata respectively, have also stepped up their efforts to ensure effective arrangements such as road connectivity to religious destinations, better air connectivity and offering essential aid with bookings, and more.