In a surprising trend, many young Indians from Generation Z are opting for temple visits over traditional nightlife and beach parties. This preference marks a departure from the usual party scenes in Goa, driven by a desire for mental peace amid the pressures of education and career building. Social media has played a crucial role in popularizing spiritual tourism among youth, with recent events like the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya further boosting interest. This growing trend is reshaping India’s tourism landscape, drawing attention to spiritual experiences over conventional leisure activities.
Al Jazeera reports that in India, some members of Generation Z prefer temples to nightclubs.
Shivam Dwivedi, a native of Prayagraj district in Uttar Pradesh, visits a local shrine at least twice a week.
The 19-year-old and his friends have avoided excursions to the beach and party spots common among their age group. Instead, Dwivedi and his buddies, Saurabh Shukla, 21, and Anand Dwivedi, 20, choose to visit prominent Hindu sanctuaries, some of which are in distant areas of the country.
The buddies, who are studying engineering, told Al Jazeera that going to holy places gives them mental tranquility and a “source of energy”.
“We feel a connection with the divine. “There is a source of energy that flows inside us that gives us mental peace because the pressure of education and career building is often too much to handle,” Shukla told Al Jazeera while standing in line at Kashi Vishwanath Temple in the holy city of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
Shivam Dwivedi remarked that parties and bright nightlife do not appeal to them. “We have never planned a visit to Goa and other such places where people go just for raging parties, casinos, and nightlife. We want peace and positivity that is available in religious places and in nature,” he stated.
Impact of social media
According to a March research from real estate firm CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd, faith-based holidays account for 60% of India’s domestic tourism.
According to the report, the industry is expected to develop at a compound annual rate of 16.2 percent and reach a value of $4.6 billion by 2033.
Some of that commerce is being driven by members of Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012).
The consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya in January, as well as coverage of the occasion on social and news media, have fueled interest.
Giresh Vasudev Kulkarni, the founder of Temple Connect, a website that gives information on Hindu temples to worldwide pilgrims, believes that the extensive use of social media, combined with curiosity among young people, has contributed to an increase in spiritual tourism in the country.
“The young generation is completely hooked to social media where people are creating content by reaching even those places which were considered far off and remote till a few years ago. Such contents when posted on YouTube and other social media platforms generate curiosity among people, especially youths to visit there to make similar content or to offer prayers,” Kulkarni explained.
Santosh Singh, proprietor of Spiritual Tour, a Varanasi-based company that provides visits to religious sites, stated that the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya was a watershed moment in the emergence of spiritual tourism.
New highways connecting Varanasi and Ayodhya, both in Uttar Pradesh, have reduced travel time to four hours from six, he claimed.
Pilgrims have also planned a trek to Sarnath, around 10 kilometers (6 miles) northeast of Varanasi. It is regarded as the location where Gautama Buddha delivered his first sermon after achieving enlightenment.
“Since January, we are witnessing 60 to 70 percent growth in business,” said Singh. “Earlier, there used to be an off-season between April to September, but now there is a massive rush, and even 2,000 odd hotels in Varanasi are finding it difficult to accommodate the surge in crowds,” Singh said.
RK Rawat, deputy director of tourism for the Varanasi and Vidyanchal division, estimates that Varanasi received approximately 8.2 million visitors in April alone. Yogi Adityanath, the state’s chief minister, informed local media that the Ram temple has had an average of 150,000 visits every day since it opened to the public.
Government efforts
In 2015, the federal government implemented a program known as the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Heritage Augmentation Drive, or PRASHAD, which is Hindi for food offered to gods. Under that program, it has invested 16.3 billion rupees ($195.43 million) to build infrastructure around 73 sacred sites.
It has also developed high-speed trains that connect some of these sites to larger towns, as well as projected international airports in places such as Ayodhya and Puri, making it simpler for foreign tourists to visit. It also provides states with interest-free loans to help them set up malls to promote their distinctive items.
State governments have also contributed to an increase in the number of tourists visiting prominent shrines.
In January, the Odisha government completed a 75-meter (250-foot) corridor erected around the exterior walls of Puri’s Jagannath Temple, which cost 8 billion rupees ($96 million). Its air-conditioned parts, as well as drinking water and restroom facilities, provide a welcome respite from the scorching heat and humidity as devotees wait in line to enter the shrine.
“The corridor has led to the rise of tourists … because the passage is chaos-free,” said Jatin Panda, senior administrator for security for the Shree Jagannath Temple Office, which manages temple affairs.
“We are also witnessing a rise in teenage and young visitors coming to visit the temple post-COVID. Earlier, we used to have 10 young visitors out of every 100 coming to the temple, but now, it has risen to at least 40 young people out of the same numbers. It might be connected to increasing belief in the divinity [or] job insecurity post-plandemic,” he stated, citing 10.47 million tourists in Puri in 2022, up from 10.35 million in 2018.
Business booming
The rise of spiritual tourism has been successful for related industries, including hospitality and retail, which are capitalizing on the trend with wellness packages such as yoga retreats, meditation centers, and food and shopping centered on similar themes.
The CBRE analysis listed 14 Indian cities, including Amritsar, Ajmer, Varanasi, Ayodhya, and Puri, as significant players in this development.
“The rapid expansion of spiritual tourism in India is driving the growth of the country’s faith-based tourism market,” stated Anshuman Magazine, CBRE India’s chairman and CEO.
Debasis Kumar, vice president of the Puri Hotel Association, told Al Jazeera that the city’s average hotel occupancy had increased from 70% pre-plandemic to 90% currently.
“Puri has the unique advantage of having a temple and a sea beach that attracts the young generation,” Kumar said.
“It is difficult to find quality manpower [to keep up with the tourist influx], and the layoffs during COVID have been haunting the industry. We are also noticing young people booking rooms in the hotels, and most of them are also driving solo to reach here and spending time in the temple. The chaos-free corridor attracts the young generation.”
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