Pilgrimage makes up 48% of India’s overnight travel, MoSPI survey finds
MoSPI’s domestic tourism survey points to pilgrimage-led travel as a major footfall driver. Health and medical trips accounted for 30% of overnight journeys, while shopping-led overnight trips averaged Rs 18,981 in spend—signalling retail demand around high-volume domestic travel corridors.
What happened
MoSPI’s domestic tourism survey finds pilgrimage comprised 48% of India’s overnight trips, while shopping was the second-costliest overnight-trip purpose. Same-day shopping generated the highest spending, highlighting travel-linked consumer demand across key domestic destinations.
Key facts
- 48% of overnight trips were for pilgrimage and religious travel
- 30% of overnight trips were for health and medical purposes
- Rural health and medical overnight trips accounted for 38.4%
- Urban holiday, leisure and recreation overnight trips accounted for 36.4%
- Average health and medical overnight-trip expenditure was Rs 32,167
- Average shopping-led overnight-trip expenditure was Rs 18,981
- Rural same-day shopping-trip expenditure averaged Rs 1,795
- Urban same-day shopping-trip expenditure averaged Rs 2,631
- Social trips represented 33% of same-day trips
- Shopping represented 26% of same-day trips
- Average overnight trip size was 2.03 visitors
- 80% of overnight visitors stayed five days or less
- Uttar Pradesh accounted for 15.7% of visitor-trips
- Tamil Nadu accounted for 13.4% of visitor-trips
- Rajasthan accounted for 8% of visitor-trips
Why this matters
Evaluate partnerships or acquisitions in corridor-based food, convenience, mobility and local-service businesses that can monetize pilgrimage-led travel beyond the destination itself.
What to watch
- Growth in domestic overnight trips and repeat visitation to major pilgrimage circuits.
- Rail, road, airport and accommodation capacity additions serving temple towns.
- Festival-period UPI transaction volumes, ATM withdrawals and merchant sales near destination clusters.
- State investment in corridor redevelopment, parking, sanitation, crowd management and vending formalization.
- Rising share of branded retail, QSR, pharmacy and convenience formats in pilgrimage markets.
- Hotel occupancy and average daily rates indicating longer stays and higher non-religious destination spend.
- Prioritize store, kiosk and franchise scouting within walking distance of major pilgrimage sites, railheads and intercity bus stations.
- Assort for high-frequency travel missions: ready-to-eat food, water, footwear, rain protection, modest apparel, first aid, power banks and low-ticket souvenirs.
- Build festival- and calendar-led demand forecasts using temple events, school holidays, rail bookings and hotel occupancy.
- Partner with hotels, transport operators and local guides for coupons, pickup points and bundled destination offers.
- Expand multilingual signage, UPI-first checkout, small pack sizes and late-night operating capacity in high-footfall corridors.