It’s ‘praycations’ time as holy towns see massive surge in bookings

Indians are packing their bags for holy towns like never before. There has been a 60 per cent increase in bookings to temple towns including Puri, Varanasi, and Ujjain in recent months, according to industry players. Airfares to these towns are up 20 per cent over the past year, accompanied by a corresponding 20 per cent increase in occupancy and average room rates.

Ayodhya, where the Ram Mandir is getting ready for consecration, is seeing heightened tourist interest. Ritesh Agarwal, OYO Rooms’ founder and Group CEO, shared on social media platform X that there was an 80 per cent surge in users searching for stays in Ayodhya, making it one of the highest spikes. He said there was a growing popularity of holy destinations, noting a 70 per cent jump in OYO app users for Ayodhya compared to Goa (50 per cent) and Nainital (60 per cent).

Pilgrim’s progress

Agarwal predicts that spiritual tourism will be a significant growth driver for the company in the next five years.

OYO anticipates a “tenfold increase in tourism by 2024” and is expanding across major religious corridors such as Katra-Vaishno Devi and the Char Dham route. OYO plans to add 50 hotels and homes, totaling around 1,000 rooms in Ayodhya before the grand opening.

The government has allocated ₹15,700 crore for various projects in Ayodhya, anticipating a massive tourism influx. According to Nikhil Sharma of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, advancements in Ayodhya and Gorakhpur affirm the upward movement in ‘praycations’. Accommodation rates at Wyndham hotels across these towns range between ₹5,000 and ₹9,000.

Rates surge

According to consultancy firm Hotelivate, rates have risen up to 52 per cent in temple towns in the last seven years. Temple towns doubled hotel keys from 3,300 in FY15 to 7,500 in FY23 as hospitality chains invested in projects in these places.

Data from EaseMyTrip support these trends, witnessing a substantial 45 per cent surge in overall travel bookings to spiritual destinations. ‘Search’ on Booking.com in 2023 focussed on hotel bookings, showed increased demand for spiritual destinations, with significant growth in Varanasi, Amritsar, Rishikesh, Puri, Katra and Tirupati. It also recorded more bookings to these towns.

Data on occupancy rates reveal consistent high levels, averaging 80-95 per cent.

A lot of schemes have come up to facilitate spiritual tourism. The Union Tourism Ministry, for instance, started PRASAD ( Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive) a few years back and sanctioned 46 projects under it. Players such as EaseMyTrip offer EasyDarshan, a dedicated platform providing pilgrimage packages around India to meet travellers’ spiritual demands.