As the pandemic pushed Indians to explore domestic destinations, cultural travel has witnessed its biggest boom in the past two years. Tracking consumer travel sentiment across India, global travel technology company, OYO, has published ‘India’s Treasure Trove of Cultural Travel 2022’ report.

As per the report, with over 3.5 times growth over the past year, Srinagar clocked the highest growth in bookings among cultural destinations in 2022. Besides Srinagar, Pahalgam and Jammu in J&K also rank among the top 5 cultural destinations in India, citing increasing travel interest in the region.

As per OYO’s booking data analyzed between January to April 2022, Srinagar, Pahalgam, Bodhgaya, Shirdi and Jammu are among India’s top 5 cultural destinations in order of ranking. India is known for its spirituality around the world. Within the culture-travel category, OYO’s data highlights rising consumer interest in pilgrimage and heritage destinations.

Varanasi, seen by many as the spiritual hub, tops the charts as the most popular pilgrimage destination in India in 2022. This is followed by Tirupati, Puri, Amritsar and Shirdi. Besides this, OYO’s Mid-Summer Vacation Index also highlights keen consumer interest in visiting Vaishno Devi this summer.

Top Pilgrimage Destinations – Zone Wise : East – Varanasi, West – Shirdi, North – Amritsar and South – Tirupati.

Shreerang Godbole, SVP – Product & Chief Service Officer – OYO said: “Varanasi, Shirdi, Rajasthan and Kerala have consistently shown up as top booked cities for this purpose, since 2021. As India’s appetite for cultural and spiritual travel strengthens, we continually support locally run hotels and homeowners to create self-employment opportunities while boosting the local economy.”