Karma caper

With spiritual tourism growing annually by five to seven per cent, leading hotel chains are fast cashing in on the pious streak in Indians

By Mukesh Khosla

Mumbai jeweller Ayush Mehta has never spared any expense on the lavish things of life. From a Mercedes Benz to a Rolex, from solitaires for his wife to exotic European vacations with his family—he has a stylish lifestyle.

But there is one ‘vacation’ that he and his family have never been entirely comfortable with—their annual journey to a holy city to pay obeisance to the gods who have showered their benevolence on the Mehta family. The reason for their discomfort has nothing to do with questionable faith: it is the lack of good hotel facilities in many of India’s pilgrimage centres.

While the Indian spirit of religion certainly remains undiminished, those among the devout who are used to a less ascetic living are asking for basic boarding and lodging facilities, not matters that have traditionally exercised the pious. If anything, discomfort was itself considered the essence of piety. To cater to the newly seraphic, there is now something called spiritual tourism, which is cashing in on the need of the devout to move seamlessly from the comfort zones of their homes to the comfort zones of pilgrimages.

A number of hotel chains are fast realising that the pious streak can fill the till. Chains such as the Taj, Sarovar, Tulip, ITC’s Fortune Park and others are looking more than usually keenly at temple towns to build hotels or enter into partnerships with existing hotels.

Most of the existing holy-city hotels offer very non-austere accommodation and hygienic food at relatively affordable prices. They are also now coming up in the teeming and hygienically problematic temple towns such as Haridwar, Badrinath, Katra (near Vaishno Devi), Puri and Shirdi. Says Pradeep Kalra, vice- president (sales and marketing), Sarovar Hotels, “We are seriously into spiritual destinations. We have the finest hotels in Badrinath, Shirdi and Pondicherry, the three places that attract pious people from across the world. In fact, in Pondicherry, where a lot of people are attracted to the Aurobindo Ashram, we have two of the best hotels, Le Dupleix and
The Promenade.”

The Sarovar group is hunting for strategic tie-ups in Amritsar, which welcomes Sikhs visiting the Golden Temple from all over the world. The group is also looking at a hotel in Pushkar which will cater both to Muslims coming to Ajmer Sharief and to tourists visiting this Rajasthan town for the much-vaunted annual camel fair.

The Indian Hotel Company, the holding company of the Taj group of hotels, took a detour from the luxury path to launch Ginger, a chain of basic but smart hotels in temple towns such as Haridwar and Bhubaneshwar. With single rooms priced at Rs 900 and double rooms at Rs 1,175, Ginger hotels are an attempt by the group to make piety pay.

The Ananda Resort in the Garhwal Himalayas has been catering to annual spiritual itinerants for years. But its rates are so high that it ends up serving the very well heeled, not Indian families for whom Rs 5,000 or so a day is not just financially imprudent but impious as well. The Golden Tulip group is looking at spiritual destinations like Puri, Amritsar, Madurai and Katra, and is formulating concrete plans that should fructify sooner rather than later.

Says Vimal Singh, senior vice-president and managing director (South Asia) of Golden Tulip hotels, “We are expecting a phenomenal annual growth of five to seven per cent in spiritual tourism. That is about 50 to 70 million travellers every year in the near future. India has never had this kind of tourism boom.”

Besides the well-treaded Hindu circuit, there is a growing demand from other religious communities as well. The newly set up Nirvana group is searching for property in Buddhist destinations such as Bodh Gaya and Lumbini, which are the magnetic pole for much of the tourist brigade from the South Asian countries. Group chairperson Munish Prasada, who spent years in the Japanese hospitality industry, says that he plans to give these tourists the best of comforts, including traditional hospitality and special Buddhist meals.

Says Kalra of the Sarovar group, “Earlier it was thought that religious tourism was a middleclass phenomenon, but today you find that even the elite have taken to it—Amitabh Bachchan and steel tycoon Lakshmi Narain Mittal are just two examples. Even Anil Ambani stopped by for a satvik [food minus onion, garlic and ginger] meal at our hotel at Badrinath.”

At Shirdi, says Kalra, there is such a rush of tourist traffic at Sarovar’s Southern Park Inn that coping with the demand often poses a problem. Quick turnarounds ensure that the 65-room hotel enjoys a cent per cent occupancy.

It is Kalra’s experience that when people arrive at religious destinations, their outlook has already been modified by the reverence of their mission: they are willing to settle for less in terms of luxury as long as the basic facilities and essential hygiene are provided. Tourism comes a distant second
to devotion.

Spiritual tourism is being seen by some travel experts as the grand saviour of the tourism industry. Many leading tour agencies are offering innovative packages such as the Haridwar Aarti Circuit, the Ultimate Buddha Tour and the Sufi Trail which takes one to several mosques and dargahs in Delhi, and the Top of the World Tour that encompasses the Char Dhams—Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath—in airconditioned comfort in luxurious tents complete with attached bathrooms.

Who says that penance and revelation come cheap?

Newsmen Features