Faith travels first class: India’s spiritual tourism

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Tents set up at Magh Mela 2026 in Uttar Pradesh in January this year. | Photo Credit: Sashi Shekhar Kashyap

Vilas Shete, 69, and his wife, Ranjana, sit in numbing disbelief as news of the rising death toll flashes across their screens from Nepal. Just days before, the couple had been standing on that ground at Gyirong Port on the Nepal-China border, smiling for photographs. They had been on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar. Now, the area is devastated, ravaged by a flood that even swept away the check post they had crossed.

The couple has been on many of India’s well-known religious tours, including to the 12 Jyotirlingas, Shirdi, Char Dham, and Narmada Parikrama. Every time they step out for religious tours, especially in other States, it cost nearly ₹50,000.

Shete, a retired employee of the Maharashtra State Transport Corporation, lives in Pune and believes that religious tourism, especially in the mountains, takes you near nature and closer to God. He believes that without a spiritual component, tourism lacks fulfilment.

Travel companies, private groups, and spiritual sects that organise religious tours across India are now doing brisk business. With the Central government’s push to develop infrastructure around places of religious interest, people’s growing religiosity, and women’s increasing mobility and money power, the demand for group tours in non-budget categories has increased. So has the supply. For instance, travel company Thomas Cook organises an “Ayodhya to Kashi Quick Bhakti Yatra with Taj stays” at over ₹1 lakh. For the Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh, The Ultimate Travelling Camp offeres “exclusive glamping packages” where “enlightenment meets extravagance”. Several tour operators offer “spiritual luxury” or “VIP darshan” for Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

A 2025 report by consulting firm KPMG projected that India’s spiritual tourism sector would grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 18.2%. The Ministry of Tourism does not maintain specific data around the number of pilgrim visits across the country. However, the government has, in various Press Information Bureau handouts, said that spiritual tourism continues to attract millions of domestic and international visitors every year. India is home to some of the world’s significant religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism.

There is also no data on what slice of the spiritual market caters to tourists who opt for trips in the luxury or affordable luxury (bridging the mass to luxury market) segments. The pilgrimage to Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarovar, for instance, cost the Shetes ₹2.72 lakh each, but this can go up to ₹7 lakh, depending on the tour operator and route.

Kailash Manasarovar yatris gather at Nathu La Pass after Sikkim Governor Om Prakash Mathur flagged off the first batch of pilgrims on June 20 this year. | Photo Credit: PTI

After China reopened the route after six years, and the first batch of pilgrims took the trip in 2025, Kailash-Manasarovar has become the latest spiritual destination that people flock to, in what is sometimes a lifelong quest to visit at least a few of India’s spiritual destinations. While the Kumbh Mela and the inauguration of the Ram Mandir pushed up the demand for spiritual tourism, pilgrimages have always been a part of India’s cultural life.

What has changed is that the youth are also now opting for them. Also, “Group packages are surging in popularity, with women travelling in these groups, with or without their husbands,” notes Gopal Bhatt, a Nainital-based tour operator and vehicle fleet owner.

Kathmandu scribe Krishna Adhikari, who has witnessed Nepal’s socio-economic evolution over 30 years, notes a steady rise in Indian religious pilgrims over the last decade. “As the numbers are growing, the tourist companies, vehicle vendors, hotels, and other service providers are crowding into Kathmandu and also on the route to the pilgrimage places,” says Adhikari.

According to the Hotel Association of India, 2025 reflected renewed confidence and strong demand in the hospitality sector, driven by spiritual tourism hotspots like Ayodhya, Jammu, Varanasi, Puri, Amritsar, and Tirupati, alongside the Maha Kumbh boosting Tier II and III markets. International arrivals along spiritual circuits grew steadily.

Bengaluru-based Vrishali Balloli, a frequent religious traveller, in her early 50s, combined trekking with spirituality during a trip to Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district in 2024. She visited the Valley of Flowers National Park, Gurdwara Hemkund Sahib, Badrinath, and Rishikesh.

Reflecting on the journey, she says, “My earlier trekking experiences were very good, but this time it was an out-of-this-world experience. My eyes overflowed as I experienced something divine during this journey.”

Balloli’s local group tour package costs ₹24,000, and her total trip costs about ₹40,000. “Travelling to religious places has become easy and accessible, thanks to the Central government’s efforts to connect religious corridors and improve connectivity,” she adds.

The Union Ministry of Tourism’s PRASHAD scheme provides financial assistance to State Governments and Union Territory Administrations to develop tourism-related infrastructure at identified religious and heritage sites. The government has sanctioned 54 projects across India, with an investment of ₹1,726.74 crore, focussing on infrastructure and visitor amenities.

Complementing this, the Swadesh Darshan scheme develops integrated tourism infrastructure across 15 thematic circuits, including Buddhist, Sufi, Himalayan, Krishna, and Ramayana. So far, 76 projects have been sanctioned and an investment of ₹5,290.33 crore has been made, as of March 2026.

“Across India, journeys of faith continue to draw millions of pilgrims every year. These sacred travels do more than deepen spiritual connections. They sustain local livelihoods, support traditional crafts and enterprises, and serve as important drivers of regional economic growth,” the Government of India stated in an explainer titled ‘A Decade of Tourism-Led Growth’ published in June 2026.

Balloli is planning on more religious trips. “I want to visit as many religious places in India as possible in comfort, and now it is possible. Soon, I want to visit Mansarovar,” she says, adding, “But I will complete the Char Dham Yatra first.”

Uttarakhand, known as Devbhoomi or the Land of Gods, welcomes devotees to numerous temples, most notably the Char Dham Yatra. This high-altitude Himalayan pilgrimage encompasses four holy sites: Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath. Traditionally completed on foot in a clockwise direction beginning from Yamunotri, now, these are done by road or helicopter.

Dehradun-based Amogh Panwar, who is a hotelier, tour planner, and trekking organiser, and has been in the tourism industry since 1992, describes Uttarakhand’s religious tourism as reaching a level of “madness.” He calls it an all-in-one package featuring the Himalayas, adventure, spiritual sites, and facilities ranging from basic to five-star accommodation across a landscape supported by five luxury hotels, over 500 travel agents, and private helicopter service providers.

Offering options ranging from ₹40,000 to ₹2 lakh to ₹5 lakh per day, the sector is now seeing seniors opting for luxury itineraries which their children abroad pay for. Wealthy travellers frequently choose packages featuring helicopter services for quick darshans, sometimes clubbing them with birthdays or anniversaries in the Himalayas.

Char Dham helicopter operations — split between roughly nine shuttle companies and about 25 charter firms — generate a seasonal business exceeding ₹1,000 crore, says Panwar. Industry insiders warn that intense competition causes safety to take a back seat, as corners are cut and checks are skipped. A former operator and a former Nehru Institute of Mountaineering volunteer revealed that pilots are often incentivised to increase daily sorties, resulting in fatigue, rushed decisions, risky flights in unpredictable mountain weather, and minimal oversight regarding passenger limits or pricing.

Last year, Shraddha Jaiswal, her husband RajKumar, and their two-year-old daughter Kashi travelled from Yavatmal, Maharashtra, to celebrate Shraddha’s 35th birthday. They took a helicopter to Kedarnath. They were killed in the fifth helicopter crash in Uttarakhand within six weeks.

“The mountains are not built for business. With the rising number of tourists, the hills are being cut and nature is expressing its wrath again and again,” says Kishan Singh, a taxi operator.

Singh notes a shift in mindset, recalling that earlier religious travellers believed enduring hardship and walking to destinations brought them closer to God, whereas today the opposite is true. “It is becoming difficult to recognise if the people coming here are spiritual or they just want to buy everything including the luxury and blessings by throwing money at the experience,” an agitated Singh adds.

Social environmental activist Mushtaq Pahalgami, with The Himalaya Welfare Organization in Pahalgam, working for sustainable environment development in the region, says that the fragile Himalayas must be protected from any further haphazard development.

Pahalgam, in Jammu and Kashmir, sits among lofty mountains and evergreen forests, attracting domestic and international tourists. From here, people travel to the Amarnath Cave, located 72 kms from the district headquarters. Amidst the burgeoning traffic — 1.13 lakh people, reportedly, visited in the first five days of the 2026 season. Pahalgami says, locals are working hard to maintain the environment and hills as they are.

Once a tiny town of over 25,000 residents, Shirdi is now a global religious tourism destination centred around the Sai Baba temple. Resident Satish Vaijapurkar, who attributes much of the town’s early growth boost to late actor Manoj Kumar’s 1977 film Shirdi ke Sai Baba, notes that daily footfall reaches about 40,000, soaring to 1 lakh during celebrations in a landscape of over 150 luxury hotels.

“We have to maintain the infrastructure and services at international standards as people from across the world come here. We have found currencies of 26 countries in the donation box at the temple,” he says.

Supported by regular VIP visits, an airport, and luxury travel companies, the rising number of visitors has boosted Shirdi’s economy. The official records with the temple show that for the financial year 2024-25, the total annual income of the Shree Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi, stood at ₹850.62 crore. Investments in bank fixed deposits were ₹3,918 crore, as of March 31, 2025.

Academician Yuvraj Lahoti from Pune, says he wants to look at temples beyond Maharashtra now. “I have added Ayodhya to my itinerary. There are groups which now go monthly or twice a month (from Pune),” he says, adding that Ayodhya provides good infrastructure and a streamlined darshan. He notes that the idea of enduring a torturous journey as part of spirituality is a thing of the past. “There is nothing wrong with seeking a peaceful, luxurious experience that offers mental peace, physical comfort, and an unhindered spiritual journey,” he adds.

He adds that the experience at Varanasi’s Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple corridor is excellent compared to his earlier visits, proving that comfort, easy access, and a hassle-free environment are essential for modern temple-goers.

Balaji Murumbe, a professional from Latur, in his late 20s, who recently visited Tirupati to resolve personal challenges ranging from marriage hurdles to financial strain, notes that religious tourism serves a dual purpose by offering routine breaks with a deeper search for meaning. Observing trends within his own travel circle, including a Gujarati couple making regular trips to Tirupati to seek blessings for a child, Murumbe says that annual or semi-annual vacations have become synonymous with religious tourism.

The Maharashtra government has planned an expenditure of ₹34,000 crore to develop infrastructure and hospitality for the 2027 Simhastha Kumbh Mela in Maharashtra’s Nashik city.

Supreme Court judge Justice Prasanna Varale observed at a public event that if even 0.1% of the Kumbh allocation had been spent on Marathi-medium schools, more than 100 schools could have been saved from closure. The education budget, he said, is shrinking.

However, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis says that 93% of the Kumbh allocation was being invested in permanent infrastructure that would benefit Nashik for the next 50 years. As the Kumbh nears, the State government hopes to welcome crores of devotees not only for the Kumbh but also to reassert that Lord Hanuman was born in Anjaneri near Nashik and not in Kishkinda in Karnataka.

Rashmi Jain, a sociologist and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Technology in Jaipur, in Rajasthan, notes that this period is marked by both, a newly developed urge to reconnect with roots and culture, and the social media pressure to be seen. “Several forces have converged here, alongside narratives crafted by spiritual leaders and katha vachaks (religious storytellers), drawing the youth. Remote religious sites are now made accessible with modern connectivity, driving the new era of religious luxury tourism”.

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