The spiralling effects of COVID-19 is gathering more moss as religious travel and annual pilgrimages to the holy sites of the country is severely hit with uncertainty over when it will jump back. Though the Central Government had relaxed restrictions following several months of pandemic outbreak since March early this year, the prevailing fear-stricken environment can only push things further back until the start of the next year, as most travel industry experts put it.

Generally mass gatherings, as we all know, in religious sites is the reason attributed to the spread of infection, and this in turn has led to almost zero travel and hotels bookings even after the relaxation of lockdown restrictions in many parts of India. COVID cases in Amristar, and closure of the Shirdi, Vaishno Devi and Tirupati temples made only matters worse. Friday prayers were called off at the Bada Imambadi in Lucknow. Even the gods have remained inaccessible for most part of the time during the lockdown. Hotel bookings and room night in several pilgrimage sites have seen an acute fall in the bookings with travellers putting off travel plans indefinitely, said hotels, OTAs and tour operators. Though the decision to close down pilgrimage sites is viewed as a welcome decision, travel and tour operators may know that they cannot be closed indefinitely.  Just for the numbers, there was an aggregate decline of 80 percent in hotel bookings and room nights at pilgrimage sites between the months of January and February this year.

PayTM has stated that the company has witnessed an unprecedented 30 per cent drop in travellers touring the top ten pilgrimage sites in the country.  All said and done pilgrimages to the holy sites of the world will see a fundamental change in how it is being conducted in the near future.