(PHOTO BY RITESH SHUKLA/GETTY IMAGES)
India’s tourism sector is set for a boom as more travellers take trips around the country for religious purposes.
The South Asian country, with the world’s largest Hindu population, could see an additional 50 million to 100 million tourists a year on account of the new Ram Mandir — a temple in the northern city of Ayodhya inaugurated on Monday — according to Jefferies.
This expected footfall in the new temple will be much higher than the annual numbers for the Taj Mahal (6.5 million) in India, Rome’s Vatican City (nine million) and the Mecca in Saudi Arabia (20 million), the note showed.
Other religious sights in India such as the Tirupati Temple in Andhra Pradesh — 25 million visitors annually — and the Vaishno Devi Temple in Jammu and Kashmir — eight million visitors per year — also hold a strong spiritual, historical and cultural significance in India, the investment bank…
