When Darshan Becomes a Journey: What the New Era of Heritage Tourism Means for Spiritual India
For centuries, the Indian traveller has known something the global tourism industry is only now discovering: a journey is not about what you see. It is about what you live. The pilgrim who walks the parikrama, sits for the evening aarti, eats prasad with strangers who become family for a day, and returns home carrying a story - that pilgrim was never a “sightseer.” They were always a story-liver.
A new report by KPMG in India, developed with the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, confirms that the entire world is now travelling the way India’s yatris always have. Titled Heritage Reimagined: Driving Immersive, Tech-Enabled and Experience-Led Tourism, it maps a global shift “from sightseeing to story living” - and for anyone building in the spiritual and heritage travel space, its findings deserve a careful read.
The world is moving toward what India already has
The global heritage tourism market stood at USD 624.6 billion in 2025 and is projected to touch nearly USD 937 billion by 2033. Asia-Pacific already commands about 40% of this market. India itself recorded 2.948 billion domestic tourist visits in 2024, alongside 9.95 million foreign arrivals - supported by 3,686 archaeological sites, 44 world heritage sites, and 16 UNESCO-recognised elements of intangible cultural heritage, from performing arts to rituals and festive traditions.
Notice something in that last list. Rituals. Festivals. Oral traditions. Knowledge and skills passed through generations. The report treats intangible heritage as equal in weight to monuments - and intangible heritage is precisely where India’s living spiritual culture resides. Our temples are not museums. Our festivals are not re-enactments. The ghats of Kashi, the Buddhist trail of Bihar, the temple towns of the South - these are heritage that breathes, every single day.
Who is the new spiritual traveller?
The report’s demographic data tells a story that will feel familiar to anyone who has organised a yatra.
Travellers aged 51 to 70 accounted for 58.7% of India’s domestic heritage tourism market in 2024 - travellers with time, financial stability, and what the report calls a strong desire to reconnect with cultural roots. This is the classic yatri profile, and it remains the backbone of demand.
But the fastest growth is coming from the 31–50 segment, expanding at 7.4% annually through 2033. Globally, 60% of millennials rank authentic cultural immersion as their top travel priority. Among younger travellers, 83% prefer unique and authentic experiences, 76% value skills learned over souvenirs purchased, and 82% say learning something makes travel more memorable. Gastronomy was the world’s most popular travel activity in 2024.
Read together, this means the children and grandchildren of the traditional yatri are not abandoning sacred travel - they are asking for it in a new form. They want the aarti and the story behind it. The prasad and the kitchen where it is made. The temple and the sthala purana narrated well, in their language, on their phone if needed.
Technology in service of the sacred
The report’s most important argument is that technology, used thoughtfully, deepens rather than dilutes authenticity.
Consider what is already happening. A digital twin of the Tomb of Mohammad Quli Qutb Shah in Hyderabad was built in 2024 from 10.7 billion data points - a virtual replica so precise it can guide conservation, structural assessment, and restoration for generations. Imagine this applied to our ancient temples, many of which face the twin pressures of age and crowds.
Multilingual AI guides, powered by large language models, can now detect a visitor’s language and interpret heritage stories in real time - dissolving the barrier that has long stood between a devotee from Tamil Nadu and a shrine in Bihar, or between an NRI family and the deeper meaning of a ritual they half-remember from childhood. The AR/VR travel market, worth USD 8.2 billion in 2025, is headed toward USD 32.5 billion by 2034, letting travellers walk through digitally reconstructed history before and during their visit.
The report is careful, and we agree completely: technology must complement, never replace, the cultural and spiritual values that give heritage its meaning. No headset will ever substitute for the moment the temple doors open at dawn. But a well-crafted digital story told the night before can transform what that moment means.
The economics of the experience-led circuit
Perhaps the report’s most practical insight is its framework for layered experiences. Instead of treating a heritage site as a single stop, destinations are learning to build a spectrum around it: guided interpretation and heritage walks, participatory workshops with artisans, cultural performances and festivals, food trails rooted in temple cuisine and local kitchens, technology-enabled storytelling, meaningful retail that supports craftspeople, and personalised offerings like early-access darshan or expert-led small groups.
This layering does three things at once. It extends how long travellers stay. It increases what they spend. And - most importantly - it distributes that spending across guides, artisans, performers, cooks, and community custodians, giving local people a direct stake in preserving their own heritage. The report calls this the shift from volume-driven to value-driven tourism. We would call it tourism that honours the ecosystem around the shrine, not just the shrine.
Government momentum is building in the same direction. Central schemes like PRASHAD and Swadesh Darshan have channelled hundreds of crores into pilgrimage and heritage infrastructure - from the Ramappa temple to Bhadrachalam - and India has launched its first net-zero heritage circuit, connecting historic temple destinations in the South through eco-friendly transport and energy-efficient stays. Climate-conscious pilgrimage is no longer a dream; it is policy.
What this means for the journeys we build
At DharmikVibes, this report reads less like news and more like validation of a conviction we have held from the beginning: that India’s spiritual circuits - the Buddhist trail of Bihar, the Ramayana geography, the temple corridors of the South - are not collections of monuments to be ticked off. They are continuous cultural journeys that unfold through streets, kitchens, communities, traditions, and stories.
The future the report describes - travellers co-creating their journeys, AI companions guiding them in their own language, experiences curated around individual devotion and curiosity, technology quietly protecting the heritage itself - is the future we are building toward, one yatra at a time.
The world has finally put a number on what the pilgrim always knew. The journey was never about the destination. It was about the story you live on the way - and the one you carry home.
Source: KPMG in India - “Heritage Reimagined: Driving Immersive, Tech-Enabled and Experience-Led Tourism,” developed in partnership with PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI), July 2026.