Feature
HOTEL Business Review
Destinations for the Soul I
ndia is a modern nation with an ancient civilisation. The civilisation of India is still very much living in the hearts and minds of its people, even after its meandering journey through the course of five millennia. With the exception of the Chinese civilisation, perhaps no other great civilisations of the world have experienced such a thread of continuity across several millennia. And many would agree that religion, coloured with revered hues of mythology, is the cementing factor in the Indian civilisation. India is a diverse land where most major religions of the world, such as Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism are being practiced, and India has places of tourist interest associated with all these religions. It is no wonder that even in today’s ITpowered India, religion is a source of solace for millions of simple souls, and also a source of money minting for scores of cunning charlatans and so called godmans. Besides these two extremes, religion in India
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also provides the requisite ambience for savvy business ventures, specially pertaining to the tourism and hospitality sectors. This enduring influence of religion in our society is misused by cunning charlatans, fake godmen and opportunistic politicians, but the influence of religion in India’s pluralistic socio-cultural environment have immense potential for the Indian tourism and hospitality industry. This potential needs to be tapped in a more proactive, creative and optimal manner.
The Potential Yes, religion is an important and a steady source of revenue for the tourism industry of India. Religious tourism is not only the largest segment of domestic tourism in India, but it also attracts a sizeable proportion of the inbound crowd every year to its spiritual ambit. Moreover, it is growing at a whooping rate per annum. Religious tourism in India has shown continuous growth. It is because in India, travels for religious reasons are viewed as necessity
and not a luxury. Indian hospitality industry has a huge potential in the area of religious tourism, which is evident from the fact that the demand in this direction keeps increasing year on year. However, most of the travellers love to get end-to-end solutions to their religious trips because of unfamiliarity of places, tourist attractions, conveyance, etc., which eventually becomes the challenging area for this kind of tourism. The enormous revenue earning potential of religious and cultural tourism in India needs to be more effectively harnessed by the Indian tourism and hospitality industry, and in this regard, our states and the Union Government should play a more proactive role than they are doing at present. It is common knowledge that India has a plethora of religious sites and shrines to make a devotee of religious tourism explore for a lifetime, at least. From Varanasi to Ajmer to Tirupati and from Gaya to Puri to Rameswaram, the thread of religious tourism in India spreads across the length
