Puri, Varanasi most preferred destinations for spiritual tourism

Spiritual tourism is rapidly growing in India; as per the reports, Puri in Odisha and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh are leading the list of holy destinations. Hotel bookings have also witnessed growth in certain holy destinations. While hotel bookings in Puri registered a 60 percent growth, Varanasi saw 48 percent growth, Shirdi 19 percent and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh saw 34 percent growth.

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Following this development, an official said, “Looking at the spike in hotel bookings, we can say that spiritual travel is now being considered as one of the offbeat travel trends in India.”

Reportedly, spiritual tourism is the biggest untapped market for domestic travel, and around 60 percent of domestic tourism revolves around religion. The government is also allocating special budgets for developing infrastructure around religious places.
In addition to this, it is coming up with new projects, introducing new train routes and even offering packages. Also, Indian Railways has introduced special trains for pilgrimage to ensure people are able to travel in limited budget.

The central government has time and again emphasised on creating ‘Brand India,’ wherein special focus will be on promoting ‘Spiritual Tourism.’ This has in a way proved to be fruitful as spiritual tourism in India is witnessing an all-time high at this point of time.