Huge opportunity in Faith-Based tourism sector in India.

🔺 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐡-𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐦 🕉 sector is such a huge market, and it is mostly dominated by offline players. Before we indulge in defining more the faith-based tourism sector, let's have a look at some stats regarding this sector:

⭐ The number of domestic tourists that visited places of pilgrimage were 1,433 million in 2022, while 6.64 million foreign tourists visited India.

⭐ More than 60% of tourism in India is associated with religious and spiritual tourism.

⭐ The places of religious tourism earned 1,34,543 crore in 2022, up from 65,070 crore in 2021, as per data released by the Ministry of Tourism. 🤯

⭐ 70 million people visited the Kashi Vishwanath Dham in Varanasi last year. Around 70,000 people visit Tirumala Tirupati on daily basis. 🕉

⭐ OYO Rooms receive the highest number of bookings in temple towns compared to other locations.

⭐ It is expected to grow with a CAGR of 16.2% from 2023 to 2033. With the government trying to improve infrastructure and transportation rapidly, this sector is set to grow even more rapidly.

👉Before proceeding further, let's discuss the "एक तीर दो निशाने" mindset of us Indians.

🔺 We often plan our trips in a way that allows us to visit both temples and pilgrimage sites, as well as the famous tourist attractions.

🔺For example, if I am planning a trip to Maa Vaishno Devi Temple in Jammu and Kashmir, I wouldn't just go to Vaishno Devi Mandir and return home; I would also visit Gulmarg and Dal Lake.

🔺If you look at the popular packages available, there are only a few that provide such packages. Even if they do, they are not customizable. Some people may prefer visiting Vaishno Devi Mandir before they continue with other tourist attractions. Since these plans are not customizable, customers are often left with very limited options.

🔥 This is where new-age tech startups can play their part. They can offer "customizable plans," providing a high level of customizability to suit every type of traveler.

🔥 Certain customizability which new age tech startups can include are:

- Selecting the age group of people you prefer to travel with.

--When selecting the age group of their fellow travelers, young people tend to prefer the company of other young individuals, whereas older people often prefer the companionship of those in their own age group.

- Adding the option to choose their accommodation:

-- Many people prefer to stay in hostels instead of hotels because they are budget-friendly, but traditional packages do not always provide the option to choose the type of accommodation that travelers would prefer

-Adding the option to choose the gender of co-traveler:

--Many female travelers are not very comfortable traveling with men, and vice versa.

👉 But adding so many customizations can be very hectic for the company and will be very expensive to provide such a customized trip to each traveler. So, what can the startups do to deal with this problem?

🔺 To solve this problem, startups should change the way they organize trips. Instead of having one group of travelers for the entire trip, they can create different groups for specific activities. For instance, people who want to go bungee jumping in Rishikesh can be in a group just for that, even if they have different plans for the rest of the trip.

Certainly, technology can make this solution possible, even though it might seem challenging.

Some problems that I think startups can face:

- Initially, the startup may face problems creating many small groups because they won't have a very large customer base. To solve this problem, startups might have to spend a certain amount of money until they reach a point where their customer base is large enough to create small groups and eventually become profitable.

- Offline players dominate this market, and most of their business comes from word-of-mouth referrals. Initially startups might face the problem to capture this huge offline market.

🤔 In my opinion companies such as MakeMyTrip or even OYO can launch an all new vertical, where the focus should be more on customizability.

🐚 There are many subsectors in this industry, such as spirituality and meditation tourism. Many people take these tours to achieve mental peace and attain enlightenment.

I will discuss about this subsector in more detail in my further posts, till then do let me know what do you think about the "Faith based tourism in India"

#India #market #startup #linkedin #spirituality

PS: This was originally a post, but since I've exceeded the character limits, I have to publish this as an article. I hope you enjoyed reading this piece.