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With 2.5 million temples dating back
several hundred years (and some
several thousands), religious tourism
in India is turning out to be a major
revenue earner although most of the
revenues are not really accounted.
A National Council of Applied Economic
Research (NCAER) study says that
Thirupathi in Andhra Pradesh is the
largest recipient of religious
tourists earning USD 224 million,
Vaishnavo Devi USD 168 million, and
Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan USD 83
million. Others earn several million
dollars but are not accounted for
because most religious tourists travel
meagerly as a pilgrimage and not as a
luxury. Also, since most of the
religious places are located in places
that are not well connected or
provided for, most trips are only to
nearby cities that have these
facilities.
For instance, there are 5000 temples
in
Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur area built
more than a 1000 years ago that are
rich in art, architecture, and
culture. However, facilities such as
quality hotels, eating options,
quality roads, etc are missing leaving
out thousands who may be interested to
see such heritage. Similarly, 800-year
old Hampi or 700-year old Belur &
Halebid in
Karnataka, over a 1300-year old
Simachalam in
Andhra Pradesh all lack access and
facilities.
Even so, the South dominates religious
and cultural tourism whereas the North
the more lucrative business tourism.
Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh,
Karnataka, and
Tamil Nadu rank very high in
religious tourism while lawless
Bihar the lowest. Even the 2500
year old Buddhist shrine Bodh Gaya
does not get tourists because of
abject neglect for the last 15 years.
Some economists say that religious
tourism takes away from productivity
of population and estimates this value
to be USD 56 billion. However,
organizations such as Australian
Humanist are aesthetic in nature and
they seek to further their ideology by
proposing preposterous theories that
religious tourism is a waste of time.
If religious tourism is a waste of
time and loss of productivity, so is
all tourism. Hence, their point of
view is tainted and should be taken
with a pinch of salt.
For millenniums, India has had
creative religious tourism programs
that encourages people from one are to
another far away. They come away from
a lot of learning and understanding
from the areas they visited. This
process also increases cultural and
national integration. Of course, in a
culture-deficit Australia with sparse
population, these values may be moot. |
