From Hotels To Tickets, Indian Travel Tech Startups Look To Capitalise On The Ram Mandir Moment

As devotees, dignitaries and other invitees pour into the all-decked-up Ayodhya for the consecration of Ram temple, the Indian travel tech and hospitality startups are all set to take a leap of spiritual faith. 

Such has been the fervour around the temple’s inauguration that even hospitality major OYO’s cofounder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal acknowledges that spiritual tourism would be one of the biggest growth levers of the Indian tourism industry in the next five years.

According to EaseMyTrip’s cofounder and CEO Nishant Pitti, this surge in interest among Indians is indicative of the passion surrounding the Ayodhya moment, and the online travel aggregator (OTA) expects a continuous uptick in travel demand for the city in the coming months.

“…Post the grand inauguration ceremony, we expect a significant surge in the number of visitors to Ayodhya. The spirit of this event is driving a heightened interest and participation,” Pitti said. 

From travel tech to hospitality sectors, startups are ramping up preparations to cater to the influx of devotees trickling into the birthplace of Ram Lalla. Firstly, platforms have been witnessing healthy interest online for offering services centred around the event. 

Building on top of that, OTAs and hospitality players are also leaving no stone unturned to cash in on the demand, deploying resources and efforts to cater to the 5 Lakh pilgrims that are expected to attend the ceremony and another potential 40 Lakh that will land in the city over the next few months.

Ayodhya Shines On The Travel Map

EaseMyTrip said it has witnessed a 150% surge in flight bookings for Ayodhya for travel between January 21 and 23 since the beginning of the year. It has also seen a 6X increase in flight searches to Ayodhya since the outset of the year.

Similarly, Ayodhya emerged as the top pilgrimage destination on searches on MakeMyTrip, growing 1,806% since the inauguration announcement. Search traffic for Ayodhya on the platform has also come from countries such as the US, Canada, and Nepal, among others. 

Hospitality unicorn OYO said it has seen a 350% increase in searches for Ayodhya on its platform over the past year. To cater to this rush, the startup has inaugurated 65 new properties, including 51 homestays and 14 hotels, in the city. 

Meanwhile, EaseMyTrip has introduced holiday packages for devotees travelling to Ayodhya and is offering discounts on flight tickets to the city. 

The Great Indian Temple Run

The heightened interest in Ayodhya is indicative of the fact that spiritual tourism is on the rise in the country. MakeMyTrip substantiated this by disclosing that it recorded a 97% growth in overall searches for spiritual destinations on its platform between 2021 and 2023.

While this surge could be the result of the pent-up travel demand post the Covid-19 pandemic, what’s noteworthy is that searches for temple destinations of Ujjain, Badrinath, Amarnath and Kedarnath grew more than 300% on MakeMyTrip in the past two years.

Not just this, travel bookings to spiritual destinations (Puri, Amritsar, Varanasi, Haridwar, and Kochi) on EaseMyTrip have seen a 45% surge compared to their usual average. This, in turn, has led to a 50% increase in hotel reservations in these areas and an average room rate increase (ARR) of 20%.

Speaking about Ayodhya, EaseMyTrip’s Pitti told Inc42, “A significant surge in tourism across Uttar Pradesh is expected, driven by the grand inauguration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. The expected boost in travel is likely to extend to neighbouring cities such as Faizabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, and Prayagraj, among others.” 

Young Indians In The Spiritual Lane 

Pilgrimages have long been associated with the elderly who often rely on local travel agents or brick-and-mortar travel agencies to plan their trips. However, this is changing now. 

A growing number of young tech-savvy Indians are also witnessing an inclination towards spiritual travel. With services at the palm of their hands, many of them are travelling with their families on pilgrimages. In many cases, travellers even fly to spiritual destinations to get away from the hustle and bustle of daily city life. 

A similar sentiment was echoed by a Booking.com report last year, which highlighted that 70% of the surveyed Indian travellers were looking for spiritual getaways.  

Banking on quaint homestays or strategic locations, affordability, restaurant chains tailored to tourist palates and religious tours, many startups are looking to cash in on the growing number of GenZ and millennials tilted towards spiritual tourism. 

Besides, tech-led personalisation offered by Indian startups provides better value, tailored customer service, and caters to diverse segments. And this market is huge. 

As per data released by the Ministry of Tourism last year, religious places earned the exchequer a hefty INR 1.34 Lakh Cr in 2022. As per a report, the homegrown faith-based tourism market is projected to grow to a size of $4.6 Bn by 2033. 

Amid this, EaseMyTrip’s Pitti believes that the Indian travel tech industry is poised to get a further boost in the spiritual realm, piggybacking on innovative solutions and technological advancements.

Indian startups from other sectors are also looking at making the most of the Ayodhya opportunity by providing services from e-pujas to drones and from electric mobility to security surveillance.

Even as politicians, celebrities and people from all walks of life descend upon Ayodhya for the consecration ceremony, it looks like Indian startups, too, have stolen a share of this limelight.