In the post-pandemic travel world, spiritual tourism leads travel recovery. Varanasi, Tirupati, Puri, Amritsar and Haridwar are India’s top pilgrimage destinations.
A lot of travellers are now looking forward to exploring rich cultural destinations, lesser-known locations and spiritual or wellness destinations. Post the festive holiday season this year OYO reveals interesting insights on spiritual and pilgrimage travel across India.
According to OYO Cultural Travel 2022 Roundup Report, travel recovery in India is driven by religious fervour. The report highlights that Varanasi is the top religious destination for bookers across India followed by Tirupati, Puri, Amritsar and Haridwar. Alongside these cities, Shirdi, Rishikesh, Mathura, Mahabaleshwar and Madurai are the other strong spiritual tourism destinations in India. Northern India witnessed maximum demand for spiritual travel, followed by South, West and East.
In order to boost pilgrimage tourist destinations, the Indian Railways has taken an initiative to encourage religious travel. They have started running trains such as the ‘Swadesh Darshan’, ‘Jagannath Express’ and ‘Ramayana Express’. Many states have taken policy actions to promote cultral travel. For instance, the Uttar Pradesh Government has rolled out several initiatives to build and promote the Ramayana and Buddhist tourist circuits by investing close to 10,000 crores in the tourism sector.
Supporting India’s strides to promote culture and spiritual destinations, OYO offers features to benefit every traveller, such as ‘Pay At Hotel’, search ‘Nearby Stays’, easy cancellation policies among others. Benefitting from this positive sentiment around travel, OYO’s H1 FY23 revenues have increased year-on-year. The company’s monthly revenue per hotel (GBV) per month has also clocked in a 69% increase year-on-year.
