The Evolution of Religious Tourism in India - India Report

Did you know: In 2022, the number of domestic tourists who visited Indian pilgrimage sites was more than India’s population – 1.43 billion. 

There has been a surge in spiritual tourism post-pandemic, a new report by consulting firm KPMG says. The Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir, for instance, is now visited by about 32,000 to 40,000 pilgrims a day, up from 10,000-15,000 daily visitors before Covid. A similar phenomenon has been observed at the Golden Temple in Amritsar and the Guruvayur temple in Kerala. 

Speaking with Skift earlier this year, Uttar Pradesh tourism deputy director said that the tourism in the state is witnessing an increase largely due to religious tourism and infrastructural developments. She said that Uttar Pradesh’s tourism industry transformed after the inauguration of the Kashi-Vishwanath corridor in Varanasi in December 2021.

“After that, in 2022 and 2023, a total of about 130 million tourists visited the pilgrim city. The success from this project was also implemented in other parts of the country, including Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh,” she said. 

In its report, KPMG shared that Varanasi received 71.6 million v