Spiritual places are dominating the domestic travel trend in India this holiday season as more travellers prefer spiritual journey over leisure time, according to ixigo & AbhiBus' year-end flight and bus data trends for 2024.
The ratio of spiritual to leisure travel stands at an impressive 6:1, meaning every six travellers are choosing spiritual travel experience for every one opting for leisure, the report shows.
"The year-end holiday season is driving a significant surge in bus travel, with a strong preference for spiritual hotspots over leisure destinations, as six travellers are choosing a spiritual journey for every one opting for leisure," said Rohit Sharma, Chief Operating Officer, AbhiBus.
Among the top spiritual destinations are Tirupati, Shirdi, Varanasi, Ujjain, and Srisailam. As per the data on flight bookings for December 20, 2024, to January 2, 2025, Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh saw a whopping 669 percent year-on-year rise in bookings by travellers for this period.
This is followed by an increase of 67 percent in bookings for Tirupati in Andhra and a rise of 58 percent in those booked for Amritsar, Punjab. Shirdi in Maharashtra witnessed an increase of 22 percent in bookings between Dec 20 and Jan 2.
While the ixigo & AbhiBus data trends show Varanasi attracting more tourists among religious places in India this winter holiday season, the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department earlier pointed to Ayodhya seeing a massive tourism surge following the consecration of the Ram Temple in January this year.
A record breaking 47.61 crore tourists visited Uttar Pradesh between January and September 2024, out of which, Ayodhya saw over 13 crore domestic tourists. It saw 3,153 international tourists as well.
Besides, the ixigo & AbhiBus data trends show Indian travellers are favouring mountains and winter destinations over beach getaways for leisure travel. From Dec. 20, 2024, to Jan. 2, 2025, mountain destinations have seen a significant surge in flight bookings.
Jammu leads the list with a 147% year-on-year increase in flight bookings, followed by Udaipur at 126%, and Dehradun at 87%. Srinagar saw a 66% rise, while Leh recorded a more modest growth of 30%. By contrast, traditionally popular beach destination Goa witnessed a smaller increase, at 52% and Jaipur witnessed a 51% rise.
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