MUMBAI:
To cater to the growing demand of spiritual tourism in the country, SOTC launched Darshans in association with ePuja, India’s first online portal for religious ceremonies.
Launched in August 2017, Darshans by SOTC is a selection of over 40 specially designed religious and spiritual experiences across 60 holy destinations in India. The tours have been designed keeping in mind the specific needs of the travellers to seamlessly aid their spiritual journey. The package includes peaceful, quick, convenient, hassle-free religious experience, pooja, special ‘havan,’ abhisheka, assisted temple visit amongst others.
SOTC Travels is the pioneer in Indian travel space to enter the integrated spiritual + leisure segment. The company has received an encouraging response in just 3 months of launching Darshans.
Key insights observed post the launch of Darshans:
Most popular with customers in the age group above 50 years upto 65 years.
Innovative combination of Leisure with Pilgrimage has seen an interesting uptake in family groups. Kids are most keen with the leisure offerings within the product while the elders choose pilgrimage.
Highest queries have been received from Southern India.
The packages that have been popular among customers are Varanasi Gaya Prayag Darshan, Ujjain Mahakal Darshan and Dwarka Somnath Darshan.
The destinations seeing an upward trend are Varanasi Bodhgaya, Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, Ujjain & Indore in Madhya Pradesh & Dwarka, Somnath in Gujarat.
To cater to the ever growing customer demand, SOTC launched Shirdi packages that facilitate smooth travel and Darshan to Shirdi Saibaba temple. VIP Darshan passes with options to choose & attend special aarti’s like Kakad Aarti, (morning – most auspicious), Madhyan Aarti (Noon), Dhoop Aarti (evening) & Shej Aarti (night) can be provided by SOTC on request. Requests have also been received for an inclusion of Tirupati packages in Darshans.
Speaking about the popularity of the initiative, Amod Thatte- Head Product, Contracting & Innovation, SOTC Travel said, “The launch of SOTC Darshans has received an encouraging response from our valuable customers and enthusiastic travellers. SOTC has effectively catered to the growing demand of travellers opting for spiritual travel. We have expanded our Darshans portfolio with exclusive packages to Shirdi and there will be newer destinations added in the course of the coming year. Customers have appreciated the uniqueness of our products due to its hassle free and handcrafted divine experiences of Abhishekam / Puja / Homam etc. We are constantly innovating and adding valued services to provide our customers a seamless spiritual journey.”
