Faith drives footfall: MakeMyTrip saw double-digit growth in pilgrimage stays across 56 destinations

Spending on Spiritual Journeys

The strong growth in pilgrimage demand is also driving an aggressive expansion of accommodation supply across key destinations. The report said travellers largely opted for short, purpose-driven stays, with more than half choosing single-night trips, yet premium stay gained momentum with bookings for rooms priced above Rs 7,000 rising by over 20 percent.

While most pilgrimage accommodation bookings (71 percent) are for rooms priced below Rs 4,500 per night, premiumisation is gaining clear momentum. In FY24-25, bookings for rooms in the Rs 7,000–10,000 range grew by 24 percent, while those above Rs 10,000 grew by 23 percent.

Alternate accommodation options such as homestays and apartments too have gained traction, contributing nearly 10 percent of room night bookings at pilgrimage destinations.

The data is based on accommodation bookings as well as pilgrimage holiday packages sold on the platform in FY24-25.

Accommodation for All Pockets

Over the past three years, pilgrimage destinations have seen a sharp rise in accommodation supply. More than a third of all hotel rooms available today at these locations have been launched in the past three years, with fastest growth in homestays, apartments, and hostels. The expansion of homestays reflects both new additions and existing properties coming online, as hosts chose to tap into rising demand. Premium supply has also scaled rapidly, with 63 percent of the premium accommodation available today launched during the same period, reflecting how businesses are actively investing to capture the demand in the premium segment.

“Pilgrimage travel has always been part of our culture, but what we see now is its scale and consistency across the country. We are seeing steady growth, fuelled by stronger connectivity and Indians across all age groups and income segments planning pilgrimage-led trips. This growing demand is broadening traveller expectations and prompting the industry to innovate in ways that better serve the unique needs of the pilgrim traveller,” said Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and Group CEO, MakeMyTrip.

Travelling Together

Group travel emerged as a distinctly stronger trend in pilgrim travel. Group bookings formed a much larger share of pilgrimage travel with 47 percent of trips made in groups, compared to 38.9 percent in leisure destinations. This also underlined the collective character of pilgrimage journeys, where families, friends, and community groups often travelled together, reinforcing pilgrimage as a shared experience.

More Indian travellers are also choosing to combine their leisure travel with spiritual journeys. In FY25, over half (52 percent) of all holiday package bookings on MakeMyTrip were made by travellers seeking pilgrimage-led destinations only.

At the same time, nearly 48 percent of bookings were from travellers who sought a combination of pilgrimage as well as leisure destinations within the same holiday package. Taken together, these trends point to a shift, with an increasing number of travellers blending spiritual journeys and leisure pursuits for a more wholesome experience.

Late Bookings

Nearly two in three pilgrimage bookings were made within a week of travel, said the report. The trend of late booking is characteristic of Indian travellers, cutting across all segments of travel. Pilgrimage travel, much like leisure, continued to be booked very close to the date of travel, with more than 63 percent of bookings made within six days of departure.

Pilgrimage travel also emerged as mostly short and purpose-driven stay, with more than half of all travellers (53 percent) choosing single-night visits, compared to 45 percent in leisure travel. Two-night stays make up nearly one-third (31 percent) of trips, while three-night stays account for just 11 percent.

Longer durations of four nights or more together were less than 5 percent of bookings, in contrast to leisure travel, which shows a more even spread across multiple nights.