'Adventure travel, cultural tours, and wellness retreats are in high demand.'
India's travel landscape is undergoing a transformation, driven by a growing appetite for unique experiences and event-centric itineraries.
Whether it's attending spiritual gatherings like the Maha Kumbh or cheering for global music icons like Coldplay, travellers are increasingly shaping their plans around marquee events and immersive experiences.
For Deepak Kumar, a 33-year-old software engineer from Gurugram, travelling to Varanasi was not something he had planned this year.
"I am not very religious but I wanted to visit the mela because it is one of the biggest congregations that you'll see," he says.
While he planned the trip to Prayagraj last year itself, Varanasi was a last-minute addition because his friends and he wanted to spend more time together before they got back to the daily grind of their corporate jobs.
Meanwhile, Arunav Saxena, a 27-year-old software engineer, bought a two-day pass to the music festival Lollapalooza, held in Mumbai last month.
"I bought my tickets in October last year, right when Green Day announced it would be performing," he says.
"It's a band I have followed since I was a teenager, and I never imagined I would be able to see it live... I could not miss it at any cost."
Kumar and Saxena are part of a growing cohort of travellers who are planning their trips around marquee events and immersive experiences.
"Events like the Maha Kumbh and Ayodhya (Ram temple consecration ceremony) are opening the horizons for all customer segments," Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group CEO, MakeMyTrip, told Business Standard recently.
With more supply and better connectivity, the seasonality factor is going away and people are seeing these as year-round destinations, he said.
The number of concerts, such as the one by Coldplay, has also gone up, stimulating domestic travel activity, added Magow whose company is India's largest online travel aggregator.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi drew attention to the success of British rock band Coldplay's concerts in India, while pointing out how the concert economy is boosting the tourism sector.
'You must have seen the beautiful pictures of Coldplay concerts in Mumbai and Ahmedabad," Modi said, adding, 'This proves that there is a massive scope for concerts in India' -- a country that has such a rich heritage of music, dance and storytelling, and a huge pool of youngsters who are big consumers of concerts.
Travel platform Ixigo's data shows that flight bookings to Mumbai saw a whopping 355 per cent increase on January 18, 19, and 21 when Chris Martin and band serenaded the city of dreams.
And, according to ConfirmTkt (Ixigo's rail booking app), train bookings to the city saw an even higher increase of 842 per cent for the same dates.
Meanwhile, flight bookings to Ahmedabad rose by 66 per cent on January 25 and 26, when Coldplay performed, while train bookings rose by 33 per cent.
Beyond sightseeing
Tourists today are not content with sightseeing or visiting the main attractions at a destination.
They are instead seeking out immersive experiences and planning their entire trips around events or even longer experiences -- like festivals in the North East.
According to Ixigo, for the 10-day Hornbill Festival held in Nagaland in December, flight bookings witnessed a 95 per cent year-on-year increase, while train bookings surged 13 per cent.
Wellness experiences, too, are prompting people to travel off the beaten track.
Take, for example, travelling to Rajasthan in the summer months. A usual no-go, people are warming up to the idea.
"I have always wanted to take my mother to the spa at Narendra Bhawan, but it is difficult to manage a booking in the peak season," Neha Mishra, a 31-year-old product developer, told Business Standard earlier.
"While convincing her to travel to Bikaner in the summer was difficult, travelling during the off season gave us many advantages, including that it was very economical."
Mishra went to Bikaner in May for two days of an immersive spa experience at Clinic, the spa at the property.
Himanshu Bhargava, general manager at Narendra Bhawan, says they usually find people from Punjab and Delhi opting to arrive in Bikaner for a weekend during the off season.
For a healthy doze
Sleep tourism -- a concept gaining global popularity -- has also begun to find its footing in India as travellers increasingly prioritise rest and relaxation over the hustle of conventional sightseeing and packed itineraries.
According to Skyscanner's 2024 travel trends report, 85 per cent of Indian travellers are now more mindful of their sleep, with 20 per cent even considering sleep as one of the main activities for their next holiday.
This is giving rise to customised programmes, including aromatherapy, yoga nidra sessions, and sleep-enhancing cuisine across big hotel chains.
The changing face of the Indian traveller is driving up airfares, hotel occupancies, and hotel room rates.
"The hospitality sector will continue to witness demand buoyancy on account of large-scale events, weddings, and sustained transient travel," Puneet Chhatwal, MD and CEO, Indian Hotels Company (the parent company of Taj hotels), had said earlier.
Factors like persisting demand-supply gap and the peak travel season for spiritual destinations like Prayagraj, Varanasi and Tirupati will also aid this growth, as will large-scale events like the Maha Kumbh and concerts like Coldplay, he added.
The company recorded a 78 per cent occupancy in the December quarter, pointing to sustained high demand.
Hotel chains are also expanding their presence in the country to bite a bigger piece of this growing pie.
"Demand is outpacing supply currently, and the new supply is getting absorbed very quickly," said Jatin Khanna, CEO, Sarovar Hotels and Resorts.
"We would grow faster if building hotels was not so capital intensive, but we want to have 150 hotels by the end of this year in over 100 destinations."
Sarovar currently has 137 operational properties and plans to add 15 new ones this year, including in the spiritual town of Mathura.
"Spiritual tourism, especially, is a wild horse right now and the momentum is only getting stronger in that sector," Khanna said.
Besides Ayodhya, destinations like Somnath, Rameshwaram, and Haridwar, and factors like infrastructure development are also fuelling this phenomenon, he added.
As the country's middle-class and younger population drive up demand, American hospitality chain Hilton has announced additions to its portfolio in India.
It has signed two strategic licence agreements, including with Olive by Embassy to open 150 Spark brand hotels, and with NILE to open 75 Hampton brand hotels in India.
In addition, the company has announced its first Signia brand in India to come up in Jaipur in 2028.
'Adventure travel, cultural tours, and wellness retreats are in high demand,' stated a February 2025 report by Deloitte India and the Retailers Association of India (RAI).
'Wellness tourism is also flourishing, with growing interest in resorts, spas and mindfulness-based experiences, prompting traditional travel companies to incorporate relaxation-focused offerings.'
According to the report, of the non-food expenses in urban households, the percentage of spending on travel and conveyance has moved to 14 per cent in 2024 from 11 per cent in 2012.
The Indian traveller wants to make an experience of every trip.
Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com
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