Spiritual tourism in India is moving beyond traditional mass pilgrimage towards a more premium and professionally managed travel experience, Neeraj Singh Dev, Executive Vice President at Thomas Cook, said at the TNIE Tourism Summit 2026 in Chennai. Speaking during a session titled ‘Pilgrims’ Progress - Building the Religion Circuit’, Dev said improved connectivity, luxury hospitality and organised pilgrimage products were transforming the way travellers visit religious destinations.

Dev said the traditional perception of pilgrimage as a journey involving hardship was gradually changing, with travellers increasingly willing to pay for greater comfort and convenience. He described the trend as the “premiumisation of spiritual travel in India”, pointing to the growing availability of helicopter pilgrimages, luxury hotels and curated experiences around major religious destinations.

He noted that services that were once largely accessible to VIP travellers are now becoming available to a wider group of visitors who can afford to pay a premium. According to Dev, this shift is also contributing to the formalisation of spiritual tourism as an organised industry, with several aspects of religious travel becoming increasingly professional and structured.

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Dev highlighted the emergence of specialised management education related to religious institutions, including MBA courses in temple management. Such programmes cover areas such as crowd and queue management, revenue management and e-commerce, reflecting the growing need for professional systems around popular pilgrimage destinations.

Improved infrastructure and connectivity are also increasing economic activity around religious centres, Dev said. Citing Amritsar as an example, he said tourist spending had increased from around Rs 450 per person a decade ago to more than Rs 2,000 as hospitality facilities and connectivity improved. He also noted that major hotel chains were increasingly investing in spiritual cities, with around 35-40 per cent of new hotel launches taking place around such destinations, including Rishikesh, Katra and Varanasi.

For travel operators, Dev said the development of the sector has also made it possible to provide more predictable and professionally managed services. He stressed the importance of coordination with temple management and local authorities, along with trained tour managers and stronger safety arrangements. According to him, the ability to provide predictable outcomes has been a key factor behind the entry of organised travel brands such as Thomas Cook into the spiritual tourism segment.

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