A question is arising on the magnificent and attractive changes in the Kashi Vishwanath complex of Varanasi, the Mahakal complex of Ujjain, and now the Shri Ram temple and complex of Ayodhya. How many people will get employment from the implementation of these plans or how will the economic life of the people of the area change? Similarly, is there any benefit from the increase in the number of tourists in religious places in other states?
First of all, let’s talk about Ayodhya. After the grand Ram temple and Ram Lalla Pran Pratishtha ceremony, there will also be a revolutionary change in the economy here. According to an estimate, after the Pran Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya, two crore tourists/devotees will come every month. If every tourist spends at least Rs 2,500, then the annual income will be Rs 55 thousand crores.
The construction of the grand Ram temple will change the economic landscape of Ayodhya and its surrounding six districts. This will increase the income and employment of businessmen engaged in businesses such as hotels, taxis, restaurants, handicrafts, and cloth sellers. The Tourism Department is working on infrastructure, development, and the restoration of the temple at a cost of Rs 588 crore in Ayodhya and Rs 936 crore by the Department of Religious Affairs, a total of Rs 1,524 crore. In this, tourists and devotees have been kept at the center.
The hospitality, travel, and tourism industry has created 20,000 jobs before the ‘Pran Pratishtha’ ceremony at the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Expecting daily arrival of lakhs of devotees, industry experts expect a continuous increase in job opportunities in the coming months.
This demand is not limited to Ayodhya, but is also expected to increase to neighbouring cities such as Lucknow, Kanpur, and Gorakhpur. It is estimated that three lakh tourists and devotees will visit here every day within two to three years of the Pran Pratishtha. According to this, about 20 crore people are expected to visit during this period. Like Kashi Vishwanath, Ayodhya is going to become the second model of cultural economy in the country. With the increase in tourism, the travel, hospitality, and logistics business in Ayodhya has increased manifold. Big hotel companies are going to open their branches in Ayodhya.
A large number of people have applied to open homestays in Ayodhya. According to officials of the Ayodhya Development Authority, over 600 homes have applied for homestay certificates in the last one year. Of these, 464 have been granted certificates and have started operations. The UP government is encouraging local people to open homestays in their homes to provide them with a livelihood. The government has designated homestays as “non-commercial enterprises”. This exempts homestays from paying any commercial tax. This initiative of the government is inspiring a large number of people to open homestays.
The target is to have at least 1000 homestays ready by next year. The aim is to increase the per capita income of the city. Ayodhya does not have any major industries or factories, so this will prove to be a good source of income. After the inauguration of the temple, it is expected that around 1,00,000 devotees will come to Ayodhya every day.
In addition, there is also a plan to bring raw or mud houses to promote “rural tourism” in the villages around Ayodhya. So far 18 people have applied for this, out of which 2-3 have been given certificates.
Professors of economics affiliated with Banaras Hindu University and their team have prepared an economic survey based on the data of the tourism department. According to this, every tourist spends an average of Rs 3000. That is, 20 crore tourists will spend a total of Rs 6 lakh crore. This amount is eight times more than the annual budget of the Indian Railways for 2022-23 (Rs 73.671 crore) and is sufficient to fund the MNREGA for more than 5 years.
In three years, more than six lakh crore rupees of investment will generate local employment. Vocal for Local will get a boost. Local goods and both skilled and unskilled labor will get employment opportunities. Even if we consider the medium flow of investment, five to 10 lakh direct and indirect employment can be created in Ayodhya and surrounding areas in the next three years. In addition, foreign exchange will also be generated due to the arrival of foreign tourists.
We can say that India has shown the world a model of a different cultural economy.
The center of the country’s spiritual consciousness, the Kashi Vishwanath precinct, has now become a focal point for economic development. Two years ago, in December 2021, when the inauguration of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor took place, approximately 69 lakh people had visited the Kashi Vishwanath temple by that time. However, in the following year, this number soared past 13 crores. In this way, within these two years, the influx of devotees here has increased by 20 times.
It is interesting to note that the largest tourist destination in the country, Goa, has fallen behind by a significant margin. The total number of tourists visiting Goa has reached only up to nearly 1 crore. Employment and business opportunities have also increased for the people. The income of those working in the tourism and hospitality sector has increased by up to 65%. Moreover, there has been a growth of 34.18% in employment in this sector.
Before 2021, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple spread across an area similar to an average-sized house of 3,000 square feet. Now, with the magnificence of the 5 lakh square feet Kashi Vishwanath Corridor, the splendour and grandeur easily captivate the beholder.
It has been reported that Varanasi has seen a growth of 20-65 percent in tourism-related income, and there has been a 34.2% increase in employment in this sector. This information is connected to the data from the Central Ministry of Tourism, which classifies over 60% of tourism in India under the category of religious and spiritual tourism.
The figures also reveal that in 2022, there was an increase of approximately Rs 1.3 lakh crores in the economy around worship places in India, compared to Rs 65,070 crores in 2021. Varanasi leads in terms of tourist numbers, while other temple cities like Ayodhya, Mathura, and Ujjain are not far behind. Among the major centers of religious tourism in the country, including Tirupati, Jagannath Puri, Rameswaram, Guruvayur, Madurai, Jammu, Amritsar, Haridwar, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Rameswaram, Somnath, Dwarka, Pushkar-Ajmer, Nathdwara, millions of rupees in income are generated through transportation, hotels, local markets, etc., providing employment to millions of people.
In terms of religious tourism, the statistics from the Ministry of Tourism are significant. In the year 2022, the total earnings from temples amounted to Rs 1.34 lakh crores, which is a substantial increase from around Rs 65 thousand crores in 2021. This represents a doubling of revenue from pilgrimage sites in just one year, compared to Rs 50,136 crores in 2020, Rs 211,661 crores in 2019, and Rs 194,881 crores in 2018.