India’s Tourism Crisis — And the Spiritual Opportunity We Must Not Miss

India welcomed approximately 18.9 million foreign tourists in 2023, marking a significant recovery and 32% growth over the previous year. Yet, less than 0.03% of these visitors came seeking a spiritual experience. This is not merely a missed opportunity — it is a national failure. We have offered the world our palaces, rivers, mountains, markets, and monuments, but we have failed to offer what is most sacred — our soul.

We let tourists take back photos, but not transformation. In the land where the Bhagavad Gita was born, where Karma and Dharma once shaped life itself, most visitors leave without ever touching the ocean of inner wisdom. It’s like coming to the beach, and never stepping into the sea.

Today’s most visited global hotspots include Times Square (50 million visitors), Eiffel Tower (25 million), Niagara Falls (22 million), Mecca (15 million pilgrims), and Rome’s Colosseum (7 million). These sites are celebrated either for their visual spectacle or religious identity. But none offer universal inner transformation — a direct experience of the Self that transcends religion, nationality, and belief. That is the glaring void India must fill. We are creating a visionary model within Gita University — not as another tourist attraction, but as India’s soul-center for global travellers. A sacred space where even one day can reconnect a visitor with their eternal Self — so they return home not just informed, but awakened.

In the next 10 years, Gita University will rise among the top five spiritual destinations on Earth. In 25 years, we envision it becoming the number one — not for entertainment, but for enlightenment. And when that day comes, the world will remember India — not just for its food, markets, or monuments — but as the sacred land that gave humanity its mirror.

Gita University will offer a structured one-day immersion for foreign visitors:

• 3 hours of Karma Yoga & Advaita Vedanta. 
• 3 hours of Hatha Yoga & Meditation.
  

Those wishing to attend only one session may do so. For deeper seekers, we offer 6-day and 30-day programs, and every participant will receive a beautifully curated book on the unity of all religions — helping them rise beyond race, creed, or country, into global citizens rooted in dharma and universal love.

This transformative experience will be offered for a very nominal fee — not for revenue, but for the revolution of consciousness. Our plan at Gita University is to make:

• 2,000 tourists per day aware of their self. (Will be scalled 10 times in 10 years).
• 60,000 per month., 720,000 annually — nearly 10% of all international visitors to India

India has emerged as the 8th-largest tourism economy, with the travel and tourism sector contributing approximately USD 231.6 billion during 2024–25. Yet, despite this economic strength, India ranks only 24th globally in international tourist arrivals, with around 18.9 million foreign visitors in 2023—a notable 32% rise from the previous year, but still far from its true potential. Over the next ten years, we envision India breaking into the top five countries globally, not just in tourism revenue, but in sheer visitor numbers. And more importantly, we foresee a profound shift in why people come to India. Within a decade, we aim for 75% of all foreign tourists to choose not monuments but meaning as their first destination — opting to land near Gita University in Hyderabad, or at one of the proposed Gita Bhavans across India, to spend at least one sacred day reconnecting with who they truly are.

To scale this Advaita movement globally, we wish to establish by 2035

• 8 Gita Bhavans at India’s most iconic tourist zones @ 50cr each = 400cr
• 100 Gita Bhavans in the world’s busiest destinations @ 50cr each = 5000cr

These will not be temples of religion, but gateways to consciousness — places where every tourist becomes a seeker, and every vacation becomes a journey inward.

Why is this necessary? 
Because while all 84 lakh species in nature live perfectly aligned with their innate dharma, only we humans — after evolving through them all for billions of years — have forgotten ours. We still chase hunger, sleep, sex, fear, and pain — sensations already known in lower forms. What is truly new now is the rare chance for Self-realization. Yet we ignore it.

We conquer technology, but not ego.  We orbit the moon, but never enter our own hearts. We pamper our pets, but forget our neighbors. We fly across oceans, but never cross the surface of our own minds.

That is why the greatest pilgrimage of tomorrow will not be to temples of stone, but to temples of realization. And Gita University, together with its 108 global spiritual tourism centers, will stand as beacons for this new era. Tourists may arrive as seekers of culture — but they will leave as awakened beings, silently carrying within them the ancient whisper:m“Aham Brahmasmi — I am That Infinite Self.”