Day 2: Ayodhya chock-a-block as Ram Temple opens doors for public

Hotels booked out, travel platforms launch holiday packages, businesses join in with special-edition products

As the doors of the Ram temple swung open to the public on January 23, a day after its consecration, Ayodhya echoed with the fervour of pilgrims and tourists. Crowds turned up from every corner, and the demand for accommodation soared to unprecedented levels.

Hotel Krinoscco, like many others, reported booked-out rooms for both January and February. Bookings will now open only in March for Rs 6,500 a night, an executive at the hotel told Business Standard.

At Tent City near Brahma Kund, some 600 metres from the temple, all 30 luxury tents were sold out on the weekend leading up to the temple’s inauguration. For now, though 27 of 30 are available at Rs 11,500 a night for two, housefull days are approaching the luxury property as well with key weekends in February all sold out.

“The opening of the Ram temple has provided an immense opportunity for us to grow,” a person at the Tent City front desk said. “We are coming up with a second site by the Saryu river, just 3.5 km from the temple.”

Tour operators and online portals are continuing to witness a surge in demand from both domestic and non-resident Indian (NRI) travellers. 

“Foreign queries from NRIs, whether they’re American or British nationals but of Indian origin, are increasing,” said Rajiv Mehra, president, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO). How many of these enquiries translate into visits remains to be seen, he added. “Currently, airfares are high, and we expect them to stabilise by the first week of February once the initial rush is over.” 

Meanwhile, online searches for Ayodhya have skyrocketed by over 1,000 per cent since the temple’s inauguration was announced, tour operators said. Ayodhya now tops the charts in terms of the year-on-year growth in online searches on travel platforms compared to any other major temple town in the country. Data from travel platform MakeMyTrip showed that the city is now the most searched destination for spiritual tourism, followed by Ujjain, Badrinath, Amarnath and Kedarnath. 

Spiritual business

Businesses are seizing the moment. Fast moving consumer goods major Dabur, for instance, marked the temple’s inauguration with the launch of limited-edition packs of the Dabur Red toothpaste and the Dabur amla hair oil. These packs, featuring a replica of the Ram temple, will be available for two months in select markets including Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

“We are delighted to introduce the limited-edition Ayodhya packs,” said Abhishek Jugran, executive vice-president-marketing, Dabur India. “It is indeed an honour for us to be a part of this historic and sacred event.”

Travel website EaseMyTrip has, meanwhile, announced holiday packages to Ayodhya and Varanasi, along with direct bus services to the temple town. 

The package, starting at Rs 13,899, offers a three-night, four-day stay in Varanasi and Ayodhya, and includes an option for accommodation, sightseeing at prominent temples and tourist attractions, meals and commuting. “With the consecration of the Ram Mandir, the heightened demand for Varanasi and Ayodhya prompted us to create [these] special packages,” said Nishant Pitti, CEO and co-founder, EaseMyTrip. 

Ayodhya’s proximity to cities such as Prayagraj and Varanasi are prompting people to include these in their itineraries, said P P Khanna, board member, Federation of Associations in Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH). All these cities are within a distance of three to four hours by road, he added. “These corridors have been developed in such a way that it encourages travel to nearby cities.”

Since Ayodhya is choc-a-bloc and capacity is a constraint, that’s also a reason why tourists are chalking out plans to visit other cities, added Rajeev Kale, president and country head, Holidays, MICE, Visa-Thomas Cook (India).

“Capacity constraints are resulting in people looking at Ayodhya just for day trips, while opting for nearby cities like Lucknow and Prayagraj for overnight accommodation,” Kale said. Focus on local infrastructure, he added, would uplift tourism and create jobs for the local community in and around Ayodhya, he added. 

Mehra from IATO said the next surge in demand would be seen around Ram Navmi, on April 17. 

“If the flights are priced well, people would want to fly to Ayodhya, visit the temple and fly back,” he said, adding, “That is the reason why airlines such as Air India Express, IndiGo and SpiceJet have connected various cities with Ayodhya.”

For now, “demand has surged 10x, and is coming from across the customer segment,” added Daniel D’Souza, president and country head-Holidays, SOTC Travel.  

The write way

Beyond the town, anything and everything related to the temple and the city that houses it appears to be flying off the shelves.

Over at the Bahrisons Booksellers in Khan Market, New Delhi, a staffer said that leading up to the consecration, books published by Gita Press were sold out. Gita Press, based in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur district, is the largest publisher of Hindu religious texts.

Three of its books — Valmiki Ramayana, Ramcharitmanas and English translations of the Ramayana — are a part of the inventory at Bahrisons.

The seller pointed out that the store had been receiving new books on Ayodhya in the past couple of years. “In the last fortnight, they have been more in demand, and 15 to 20 titles are seeing good sales every day,” said the staffer. Among the books in demand, he said, are Ayodhya Ram Mandir: Bharat’s Quest for Ram-Rajya by Swadesh Singh, Ayodhya: City of Faith, City of Discord by Valay Singh, Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times by Salman Khurshid and Ayodhya: The Dark Night by Krishna Jha and Dhirendra K Jha.

Whichever way one looks, it is a moment for all things Ayodhya.