Varanasi, India – In India, some Gen Zers prefer temples to nightclubs.
Shivam Dwivedi, a native of Prayagraj district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, prays at a local temple at least twice a week.
The 19-year-old and his friends avoid trips to the beach and party destinations popular among this age group. Instead, Dwivedi and his friends Saurabh Shukla, 21, and Anand Dwivedi, 20, prefer to visit important Hindu shrines, some of them in remote corners of the country.
The friends, who are studying engineering, told Al Jazeera they gain peace of mind and find a “source of energy” in their trips to religious sites.
“We feel a connection with the divine… There is a well of energy flowing within us that gives us peace of mind as the pressure of education and building a career often becomes too hectic to handle,” Shukla told Al Jazeera as she waited in line outside the Kashi Vishwanath Temple in the holy city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
Parties and glitzy nightlife do not appeal to them, Shivam Dwivedi added. “We have never planned to visit Goa or other such places where people go only to enjoy wild parties, casinos and nightlife. We want the peace and positivity that is found in religious places and nature,” he explained.
Faith-based holidays account for 60 percent of India's domestic tourism, according to a March report by real estate consultancy CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd.
The industry is estimated to grow at a compound annual rate of 16.2 percent and is likely to reach a size of $4.6 billion by 2033, according to the report.
Part of that business is being driven by members of Generation Z (those born between 1997 and 2012).
The consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya in January and coverage of the event on social and news media have helped fuel interest.
Giresh Vasudev Kulkarni, founder of Temple Connect, a company that provides information about Hindu temples to pilgrims around the world, said widespread use of social media coupled with curiosity among young people has helped lead to a surge in spiritual tourism in the country.
“The young generation is completely hooked on social media, where people create content even in places that were considered far and remote until a few years ago. When such content is posted on YouTube and other social media platforms, it creates curiosity among people, especially the youth, who visit them to create similar content or offer prayers,” Kulkarni explained.
Santosh Singh, founder of Spiritual Tour, a Varanasi-based company that offers tours to religious sites, said the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was a major breakthrough in the rise of spiritual tourism.
New highways connecting Varanasi and Ayodhya, both cities in Uttar Pradesh, have reduced travel time from six to four hours, he said.
Pilgrims have also undertaken a journey to Sarnath, about 10 km (6 miles) northeast of Varanasi. It is considered to be the place where Gautama Buddha gave his first sermon after attaining enlightenment.
“Since January, we are witnessing a 60 to 70 per cent growth in business,” Singh told Al Jazeera. “Earlier, there used to be a low season between April and September, but now there is a massive influx, and even Varanasi’s 2,000 hotels are struggling to accommodate the surge in crowds,” Singh said.
In April alone, Varanasi received around 8.2 million visitors, according to RK Rawat, deputy director of tourism for the Varanasi and Vidyanchal division. And around 150,000 visitors on average visit the Ram temple per day since it opened to the public, state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath told local media.
Government efforts
In 2015, the federal government introduced a scheme called Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD, Hindi for food offered to the gods). Under the scheme, Rs 16.3 billion ($195.43 million) has been spent to develop infrastructure around 73 religious sites.
It has also introduced high-speed trains connecting some of these places to other major cities and has proposed international airports in cities like Ayodhya and Puri, which will facilitate access to foreign tourists. It is also offering interest-free loans to states to set up shopping malls to showcase their exclusive products.
State governments have also played a role in attracting more tourists to important sanctuaries.
In January, the Odisha government inaugurated a 75-metre-long walkway it had built around the outer walls of the Jagannath temple in Puri, at an investment of 8 billion rupees ($96 million). Its air-conditioned sections with drinking water and sanitation facilities are a welcome escape for devotees from the scorching heat and humidity as they wait in line to enter the temple.
“The corridor has led to an increase in tourists… because the passage is free from chaos,” said Jatin Panda, senior security officer at the Shree Jagannath Temple Office, which manages the temple’s affairs.
“We are also witnessing an increase in the number of teenage and youth visitors coming to the temple post-COVID. Earlier, we used to have 10 youth visitors out of every 100 coming to the temple, but now, it has increased to at least 40 youth out of the same number. It could be related to the rise in belief in divinity. [or] “Job insecurity after the pandemic,” he said, pointing to the 10.47 million tourists in Puri in 2022, the latest available data, up from 10.35 million tourists in 2018.
Business is booming
The rise of spiritual tourism has been profitable for related sectors, including hospitality and retail, which are jumping on the bandwagon with wellness packages that include yoga retreats, meditation centres and meals and shopping around those themes.
The CBRE report identified 14 Indian cities, including Amritsar, Ajmer, Varanasi, Ayodhya and Puri, as key cities witnessing this boom.
“The rapid expansion of spiritual tourism in India is driving the growth of the country's faith-based tourism market,” said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman and CEO, CBRE India.
Debasis Kumar, vice president of the Puri Hotels Association, told Al Jazeera that the average occupancy of hotels in the city has shot up from 70 percent in the pre-pandemic era to 90 percent now.
“Puri has the unique advantage of having a temple and a beach that attracts the young generation,” Kumar said.
“It is difficult to find quality labor [to keep up with the tourist influx]“Layoffs during the pandemic have been affecting the industry. We are also noticing young people booking rooms in hotels, and most of them are also driving themselves to reach here and spend time at the temple. The chaos-free corridor attracts the young generation.”
