The highest demand for hotel rooms in India has been coming from temple towns. Hotel and air ticket bookings for religious places like Puri, Varanasi, and Ujjain increased by 60 percent, but the election results impacted the trend adversely.
Religious tourism in India has grown by 16 percent per annum since 2022. After the consecration (pran pratishtha) of Ram Lalla in January 2024, a huge increase was seen in the number of people reaching Ayodhya. Ram temple had the potential of drawing up to 5 crore visitors every year. This number is double that of Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, where 2.5 crore people visit annually, offering the highest donations of Rs 1200 crore. Around 1.5 lakh pilgrims started reaching Ram temple every day. As a result, 25,000 new jobs were expected to be created in the hotel and travel industry. The Maharishi Valmiki International Airport of Ayodhya, built for Rs 1450 crore, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 30 December. It has been designed to accommodate 10 lakh passengers annually. At the beginning of the year, people were so excited that booking of air tickets to Ayodhya surged by 150 percent, and flight searches for this destination also saw a 70 percent jump.
Oyo Rooms founder Ritesh Agarwal claims that the highest demand for hotel rooms is coming from temple towns. This trend grew upward in the last two years. Bookings for religious places like Puri, Varanasi, and Ujjain increased by 60 percent. Airfares for these cities have also increased by 20 percent compared to last year. Other religious destinations include Amritsar, Katra, Puri, Shirdi, Haridwar, Rishikesh and Tirupati. The number of people visiting Ayodhya suddenly shot up and an 80 percent increase was noticed in the number of people looking for hotel rooms. Till last month, there was a 70 percent jump in the number of people using the Oyo app in Ayodhya, while this figure was 50 percent in Goa and 60 percent in Nainital.
The unexpected defeat of the BJP in Ayodhya was bound to have side effects. The storm of tourists that had been blowing in Ram’s city since January has stopped after the announcement of the poll results. The anger of the people saddened by the defeat of the BJP erupted on social media and a campaign to boycott Ayodhya started. The result was that the interest of tourists and pilgrims in Ayodhya diminished. SpiceJet airline stopped its direct flight from Hyderabad to Ayodhya, which was launched two months ago. In February, this airline had direct flights to Ayodhya from Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur, Patna, Darbhanga and Hyderabad. Its direct flights can now be availed only from Delhi and Ahmedabad. Passengers from other cities can no longer enjoy SpiceJet’s direct flights. On top of that, an Islamic terrorist organization has threatened to blast the temple. The number of devotees reciting Hanuman Chalisa and chanting Jai Shri Ram on flights to Ayodhya is rapidly diminishing.
The Government of India had allocated a fund of Rs 700 crore for various projects in Ayodhya assuming that tourism there would grow. To promote religious and spiritual tourism in the country, the Union Ministry of Tourism started PRASHAD (Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive) a few years ago and approved 46 projects. According to the SBI Research report, the number of tourists in 2022 was 32 crore, of which 2.21 crore were from Ayodhya alone. These tourists spent approximately Rs 2 lakh crore. But, the situation in Ayodhya is not favorable now. There is disappointment among the tourism service providers there. Ayodhya got the gift of clean and wide roads, the world-famous Ram Janmabhoomi temple, the international airport, and many other facilities. The movement of tourists gave a new boost to the economy there. But the election results spoiled everything. Let us pray that Ayodhya will shine again in the times to come.
The author is a senior journalist and columnist. Views are Personal. Email: narvijayindia@gmail.com
