India's Religious Tourism Market

A few of us took a weekend trip to Agra to unwind between the semesters. On the return trip from Agra to Delhi, at the insistence of some of the accompanying friends, we made a short stop visit to Mathura and Vrindavan - two amongst some of the most sacred sites of Hinduism. The main temples at both places were very well built, elaborately designed and decorated structures. The crowds consisted mostly of rural populace submerged in deep devotion and oblivious of the basic substandard tourist facilities around them. The crowds kept pouring and swelling non-stop. Looking around I wondered how much money this not-so well-off population was spending on this and similar religious trips. Was there a clear religious market segment and were the religious institutions knowingly positioning their product (the specific deity, the associated mythology, the religious structures and the overall experience) to target the appropriate customer. What was India’s religious market worth?

I am not sure yet if there is any scientifically planned and executed segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) strategy by the religious institutions. It however is very clear that clever planners in many of these institutions have indeed taken several steps (often ad-hoc) to make their product more appealing in general. They have built the aura and helped fan the mythological reverence of the presiding deity at many of these places.

As for the religious market and its size, I did some digging around. What I found was that according to the Indian ministry of tourism (MoT), the domestic tourist (72% religious) stats along with foreign tourist stats showed a phenomenal growth in 2007. On the domestic front, the figure in 2008 is expected to cross the 600-million mark, against 526 million in 2007 and 460 million in 2006. Interestingly, out of the 526 million domestic tourists, only 276 million were urban residents and the rest 250 million were rural residents. This, I feel, clearly shows the presence of the religious market segment and its market size. The trend also points to a boom in religious tourism and provides religious organizations, leading tour and travel companies the incentive to improve tourist facilities and adopt new strategies for marketing and execution.