Challenges for Entrepreneurs of 'Religious Tourism Circuits': A Study of 'Holy City' Kurukshetra

Abstract

Government of India launched a 'Swadesh Darshan Scheme' in January 2015 that pinpoints 13 designated circuits including Ramayana circuit, Krishna Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, and Spiritual Circuit to promote religious and cultural tourism in the country. Kurukshetra is a 'Holy City' of State of Haryana that is recently been added in 'Krishna Religious Tourism Circuit'. 'Krishna Circuit' embraces inherent mythology and beliefs pertaining to Lord Krishna and includes different place of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujrat, and Odisha for tourism facilitation. This scheme is alleged to contribute significantly in increasing the attractiveness of certain religious tourist destinations. Tourism entrepreneurs like hoteliers, restaurant owners, tour operators, travel agencies as well as religious entrepreneurs (Shinde, 2010) such as religious gurus, priests and managers of temples and ashrams are expected to get benefited from the initiatives proposed in the scheme in varied ways. Given the significant role of this scheme for growth of entrepreneurs, the present study aims to highlight the challenges faced by entrepreneurs that deserve attention of policy makers.