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Places of religious tourism earned ₹1,34,543 crore in 2022, reveals govt data
The number of domestic tourists that visited places of pilgrimage were 1,433 million in 2022, while 6.64 million foreign tourists visited India
The places of religious tourism earned ₹1,34,543 crore in 2022, up from ₹65,070 crore in 2021, data released by the ministry of tourism said.
While the ministry of tourism does not maintain the revenue generated through religious centres, it does have an account of foreign exchange earnings.
In 2018, the revenue was ₹1,94,881 crore, followed by ₹2,11,661 crore in 2019 and a significant dip due to the pandemic in 2020 to ₹50,136 crore.
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The number of domestic tourists that visited places of pilgrimage were 1,433 million in 2022, while 6.64 million foreign tourists visited India.
In 2021, the numbers stood at 677 million and 1.05 million, respectively.
“Development of tourism is primarily the responsibility of the concerned State Government/Union Territory Administration, however, Ministry of Tourism under its scheme viz. National Mission on Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual, Heritage Augmentation Drive (PRASHAD) provides Financial Assistance to the State Governments/Union Territories for creation of pilgrimage and/or heritage tourism infrastructure at the pre-identified destinations across the country,” the ministry of tourism said.
It has approved a total number of 45 projects in the country under PRASHAD Scheme for an amount of ₹1586.10 crore so far.
PRASHAD scheme was launched in 2014-2015 under the ministry of tourism.
The scheme focuses on developing and identifying pilgrimage sites across India for enriching the religious tourism experience.
