Temples attract more tourists than beaches, hill stations

Compared to beaches and hill stations, more tourists are visiting temples in Tamil Nadu. Spiritual tourism is bringing lakhs of people to this southern state, with statistics indicating that districts with popular temples have emerged as top draws.

The temple town of Kancheepuram ranked first followed closely by Chennai. According to statistics from directorate of tourism, both Chennai and Kancheepuram collectively account for 20 per cent of the total 38.59 crore domestic tourists who visited the state last year.

Ramanathapuram, Dindigul and Thanjavur that have ancient temples such as Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram, Dhandayuthapani Swamy Temple in Palani and UNESCO-notified Brihadeeswarar Temple have been ranked third, fourth and fifth, based on the number of domestic tourist arrivals.

While Madurai and Kanyakumari figure among the top 10 destinations, Queen of Hill Stations, the Nilgiris, secured 11 position.

For international tourist arrivals the ranking was measured on data collected from check-in at hotels, information from the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments Department and number of visitors to ticketed monuments of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Source: Times Of India