The Rise And Rise Of Spiritual Tourism

Fuelling the resurgence of the Indian tourism industry are the myriad spiritual destinations of the country, making spiritual tourism bigger than ever before!

- VINODINI RAO

• 70 million people visited the Kashi Vishwanath Dham in Varanasi last year after its renovation compared to around eight million a year earlier.

• The number of domestic tourists that visited places of pilgrimage were 1,433 million in 2022, while 6.64 million foreign tourists visited India. In 2021, the numbers stood at 677 million and 1.05 million, respectively.

•More than 60% of tourism in India is associated with religious and spiritual tourism.

• The places of religious tourism earned ₹1,34,543 crore in 2022, up from ₹65,070 crore in 2021, as per data released by the Ministry of Tourism.

• 2023 travel predictions claim that nearly 70% of Indian travellers are seeking to try a spiritual stay, which includes meditation and mindfulness getaways, while 63% are looking at silent retreats.

Travel is at an all-time high. And spiritual tourism

- travel motivated by spiritual or religious reasons

- is the new trend among travellers. Although both concepts have common aspects, while religious tourism focuses on the visiting of religious sites, monuments or destinations, spiritual tourism prioritises inner journey, contributing to elevate one's physical, mental and emotional energies. But for all practical purposes, 'spiritual tourism', as a term, is used broadly to include religious tourism as well.

And going by the above statistics, spiritual/ religious tourism is undoubtedly leading India's travel recovery as more and more Indians are visiting spiritual or religious destinations now than ever before. In fact, even international tourists in the country are on the rise.