Religious tourism — travel for religious or spiritual purposes and viewing monuments — is a growing hotel industry trend in India as spiritual sites attract a well-paying younger generation.
Hoteliers are beginning to make a differentiation between those pilgrimage sites that are religious in nature and those that are spiritual, although the two often mix.
“My opinion is that we should broaden the definition to include both spiritual and religious tourism,” said Achin Khanna, managing partner, strategic advisory, at business consultancy Hotelivate.
“Several of the shrines cross religious boundaries and are visited by all people, like Shirdi or Ajmer Sharif Dargah,” he added, referring to sites in the states of Maharashtra and Rajasthan, respectively.
He said spiritual sites attract people regardless of religion, age and geography.
All places of worship in India were closed during the lockdown, but slowly they have reopened with devotees continuing to come in large numbers.
The nature of this tourism has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Ajay Bakaya, managing director at Sarovar Hotels & Resorts.
“Devotees in the post-pandemic [era] are looking at sanitized, safer places to stay, which will be advantageous to branded properties,” he said.
Khanna added that many religious destinations are still dominated by independent hotels, ashrams and boarding and lodging options.
“Most upscale brands still do not have a significant presence, nor have they announced any major plans for expansion. This, in turn, does translate into opportunity for hotel developers and operators. Post-COVID, there is a demand for hotels where the traveler feels safe and is sure of the facilities. … The demand for places to stay from the organized sector is bound to rise,” he said.
In Bakaya, particularly, guest numbers are rising.
“The number of devotees visiting these places is slowly coming back to pre-COVID levels. The occupancy is similar to pre-COVID levels, except in places like Tirupati [Andhra Pradesh State] where [the local regulatory board] has put a restriction of 25,000 visitors day,” Khanna said.
He added room rate have not yet reached 2019 levels due to tourists coming to pilgrimage sites for only a few days, or even hours.
Non-resident Indians, if they can travel to India, typically stay for three to four days, adding to their pilgrimages visits to other attractions and with family.
Jayant Singh, managing partner at Karma Hospitality, which operates the Treehouse hotel brand, now is branching into religious tourism with its debut in Amritsar, close to the Golden Temple, a popular site in Punjab State.
“We opened this property amidst the pandemic, and the hotel has ever since seen increased revenues month on month. Currently, the hotel is seeing 82% occupancy. However, [average daily rate] is not as per our expectations. This is primarily because the [non-resident Indian] population is missing,” he said.
Round and Round
Some religious tourism comprises specific circuits of sites, with hoteliers looking to open properties all along those circuits so the customer can seamlessly book their stays.
“We have some interesting properties in these religious circuits. In the Hindu religious circuit, there is Kedarnath [Uttarakhand], Tirupati and Vrindavan [Uttar Pradesh]; in the Buddhist circuit, Bodhgaya, and for the Sikh circuit, Amritsar,” Bakaya said.
“We have a property at Katra [Jammu and Kashmir] coming up and another at Dwarka [Gujarat State]. Vrindavan, given its proximity to Delhi, is becoming popular,” he added.
Hoteliers also expect growing popularity among newer, smaller destinations such as Nathdwara in Rajasthan, Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu and Madurai in Tamil Nadu.
Singh added “the religious circuit or tourism is active 365 days in a year. It has no cyclical trends like [leisure tourism in] Rajasthan or Goa. The occupancy is also high if the location is [adjacent] to the place of worship.”
“As a brand we are working on the religious tourism circuit and hope to have seven or eight hotels in the next two years. Going forward, our focus is going to be Katra, Ajmer, Mathura and Vrindavan in the north and Shirdi and Tirupati in the south,” he said.
Hoteliers are focused on religious and spiritual destinations they feel are currently under-served and on locations as close to the actual pilgrimage site as possible.
Stepping Up
Religious tourist destinations remain dominated by budget and mid-market brands, with upscale and luxury brands yet to make an impact.
“For a religious tourist, the pilgrimage is more about austerity, and thus he does not look for too much luxury or opulence. Hence, you see more mid-market hotels and not too many high-end brands. But in the next five years, you will see bigger brands and names entering the segment,” said Sarovar’s Bakaya.
Hotelivate's Khanna went even further with that assessment.
“People often visit religious destinations as a form of penance and gratitude and may not always be too inclined to spend significantly on plush or luxurious stays,” he said.
He added that spiritual tourists do not have that same compulsion.
The city of Ajmer does not have top brands, but Pushkar, half an hour away, has an upscale hotel.
“The Taj Nadesar Palace in Varanasi, for instance, is not a huge property but still does excellent business because of the location and people visiting Varanasi to take in the sights,” he added.