“One of the key segments of India’s tourism sector, pilgrimage or faith based tourism might very well hold the key to India’s effort to augment the flow of foreign tourists in the country and to facilitate domestic travelling,” according to Parvez Dewan, secretary, ministry of tourism, Government of India. The fact that pilgrimage tourism the world over has proven to be the most recession free segment in the sector adds weight to Dewan’s argument. The secretary was speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) roundtable on pilgrimage tourism in Delhi recently, which saw participation of various stakeholders in deliberations aimed at finding ways to tap the explosive potential of this segment.
While there are no reliable industry numbers available pertaining to pilgrimage tourism in particular, some rough estimates put forth by the participants were enough to highlight the growth opportunity at hand. “It is already a US$ 10 billion industry in the US. And in India, we had over 850 million domestic tourists in 2011, out of which, an estimated 14 per cent would be religious or pilgrimage tourists, and eight of the top 10 destinations in India are religious destinations,” said Rakesh Tandon, managing director, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC). A quick calculation based on these numbers highlights a figure of around 120 million domestic pilgrimage tourists. “Even if you are looking at a figure of about 100 million people, if you increase the per person spend of these 100 million tourists by Rs 100 or increase the number by 10 per cent, you are looking at infusing an extra Rs 1,000 crore per year into the economy,” said Ashish Gupta, founder, Strategy Pluto.
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Diverse offerings
Dewan and others present at the roundtable insisted that such estimates were enough to bust the myth that faith based tourism was a niche and insipid segment. “Faith based tourism is not niche at all, in fact it’s very mainstream. Shankaracharya can be considered to be the first tourism minister and Shravan Kumar the first great tourist – such has been the relationship between faith and travel in our country. Today, conventionally regional religious centres like Shirdi, Vaishno Devi and Tirupati have become national phenomena. Religious tourism is not just Hindi or Marathi speaking. Even western tourists do it,” Dewan said. He also threw light on developments at the ministry of tourism with regard to this segment, including plans to open Jewish pilgrim centres in cities like Kochi which once upon a time was teeming with Jewish population. Even the Sufi circuit has caught the eye of the ministry. As it is common knowledge, this year MoT appointed a National Level Consultant (NLC) to identify some spiritual tourism circuits, including the Sufi Circuit, for integrated development in association with the states/ Union Territories for development during the 12th Plan period. Also present at the roundtable was eminent film maker, and executive director of the Rumi Foundation, Muzaffar Ali, who spoke on the potential of Sufi tourism within the larger ambit of faith based tourism in India.
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“Sufi tourism is an extremely important aspect of Indian tourism. The world’s growing interest in Sufi thought is primarily because the disillusioned western youth is looking for solace. Rumi has become the largest read poet in the US. He has come to life for them after 800 years,” said Ali. Rumi Foundation organises the popular Sufi music festival Jahan-e-Khusrau and has brought out several publications on Sufism and its shrines in India. “We set up Rumi Foundation which organises the Jahan-e-Khusrau festival. We are also now looking at Jahan-e-Khusrau tours, both before the festival as well as shortly after it. We need to have retreats in India where people can go and spend time and introspect. We are now engaging with the government and need to draw a holistic plan. Marketing in the west is a specialised area and needs a lot of our focus and attention,” he added.
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Deliberations also focussed on the question that how can a pilgrim tourist be lured to extend his stay and also combine leisure and other nearby tourist attractions to his itinerary rather than visiting just a religious centre. Urging the fraternity to take the baton in its own hands rather than depending on and waiting for the government to take up the cause, Karan Anand, head, relationships and supplier management, Cox & Kings said, “ We need to extend pilgrimages to holidays. If we link pilgrimage tourism to safety, comfort and experience, it will actually translate into the realisation of the explosive potential this segment has. We need to develop that synergy. Pilgrimage tourism is right now very purpose driven in this country and we need to link it to experience.” The secretary also urged the industry to be a little more sensitive towards the religious beliefs and faith of the travellers as it would help the hospitality and travel sector in terms of volumes and revenue.
“Take the Jain community for example. They would ideally want rooms where there is no leather and where beef hasn’t ever been served and so on. If hotels become a little sensitive to these concerns, they can do well in terms of revenue and occupancy. And it cannot be harmful for a normal secular hotel if they are a little more sensitive to such concerns,” added Anand. It was also announced that MoT will soon come out with a website listing important tourist destinations in the country and facilities that are available in such centres. So far details of 243 destinations have been compiled and the effort is to make it cover every tourist spot in the country, including religious destinations. Other web based tools and new media technologies will also be employed. Arjun Sharma, co-chairman, CII National Committee on Tourism and managing director, Passage to India, stressed on the need for strengthening infrastructure, enhancing connectivity and mapping of tourist destinations that can be developed.
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Challenges
Industry stakeholders raised concerns about the lack of physical infrastructure in and around religious centres becoming a major hindrance for operations as well as quality of services. The problem was highlighted by Tandon, who told Express TravelWorld, “When we take a pilgrim special train with 800 people and we reach a destination, there are teething troubles we face in terms of basic tourist infrastructure like shortage of decent hotels and guest houses where all the passengers could wash and change. We have to move people to at least six to eight hotels and at times to even dharamshalas. Buses too are not allowed to be parked close to the shrines while smaller vehicles are usually allowed. Most people taking up pilgrim packages are elderly and all this causes a great inconvenience.”
When asked about the building of infrastructure facilities around pilgrim centres, Dewan said that his ministry is doing its best with whatever limited resources it has at its command. He explained that the nodal agencies for such decisions are the ministry of surface transport and the state governments and such decisions were taken on a holistic basis and not necessarily driven by tourism needs alone. However, he mentioned that his ministry funds last mile connectivity projects. “Last mile connectivity is not a priority for the state government, so we do help out there. Roads and highways are primarily the job of the state governments. As far as interstate connectivity is concerned, our sympathies are with you. It is a call which the state governments need to take. We have made efforts in this regard and we will continue to do so,” he said, while responding to questions raised by a few tour operators present in the audience. It was also agreed that Campaign Clean India, a joint cleanliness campaign by the ministry of tourism and the ministry of railways, must take up religious centres on a priority basis, as sanitation concerns and pollution also cropped up as major irritants affecting the well being of the sector.
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One of the more important and engaging sessions was focussed on the Buddhist circuit. This circuit has been identified as a priority circuit, which is evident from the fact that India had signed an MoU on tourism with ASEAN in early 2012, with a work plan for the development of ASEAN-India cooperation in Buddhist pilgrimage tourism. Calling it an extremely focussed circuit and market, Nalin Singhal, director, IRCTC asserted that the current volume of foreign tourists on the circuit is below potential. “That total estimated population of Buddhists worldwide is about 400 million. Now estimates of inbound Buddhist travellers to India stands at around two lakh, which is way below potential. So if we take a target of getting two million foreign Buddhist tourists a year for the Buddhist circuit and more, and if we take an average figure of US$ 1,000 being spent by each of them, we are looking at something like US$ two billion. And this is totally achievable” he said. IRCTC already runs a Buddhist Circuit Special train which includes an eight-day tour covering eight most important sights of Buddhism in India. It was also announced at the roundtable that IRCTC in association with the Odisha government will be starting an Odisha Buddhist circuit train, which will be starting this month. Sri Lankan tourists also feature in IRCTC’s plans with a 22 day Buddhist special train being planned for them, which they can board from Chennai after reaching the city by air from Colombo. State owned helicopter company Pawan Hans too will be starting helicopter services for the Buddhist circuit to connect centres like Varnasi, Bodhgaya and Singroli, announced Sanjay Kumar, general manager, Pawan Hans.
