Odisha’s Puri Most-Booked Spiritual & Pilgrimage Destination In 2023: OYO Report

Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Puri tops the list of most-booked spiritual and pilgrimage destination, followed by Amritsar, Varanasi, and Haridwar, according to hospitality tech platform OYO’s Travelopedia 2023.

While being synonymous with Lord Jagannath and his siblings Lord Balabhadra & Goddess Subhadra, Puri is a wonderful fusion of spirituality, history and the sun-soaked pleasures of the sea. It allows travellers to unwind in luxury and also spend a peaceful day amidst nature. Golden beach in Puri has also bagged the coveted Blue Flag Certification.

Notably, almost all the hotels in Puri are already sold out ahead of winter vacation and New Year celebrations and those left out are available for booking now at a premium.

Similarly, Hyderabad was the most booked city in India followed by Bengaluru, Delhi, and Kolkata in 2023. “Smaller towns like Gorakhpur, Digha, Warangal, and Guntur experienced the highest year-on-year growth in bookings compared to 2022,” the OYO report said.

It further said that Uttar Pradesh was the most visited state in the year, followed by Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh. While September 30, 2023, was the most booked day, May 2023 saw the highest bookings. “Notably, the period from September 30 to October 2 recorded the highest bookings among all long weekends in the year,” it added.

The Travelopedia 2023 is based on the global booking data of OYO, which has more than 93 million users across India, the UK, the US, Indonesia, Malaysia, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and the rest of Asia and Europe.