Buddhist Circuit

Buddhists around the World come to visit India and Nepal atleast once in their lifetime. This is the reason why maximum people travelling on the Buddhist Circuit are pilgrims. Since such type of travellers visit Buddhist sites with devotion in their heart, their expectations towards the quality of boarding and lodging during the journey is low.

During our exploration, my travelling partner Suneel Jain and I observed that the hotels on the Buddhist Circuit are roughly divided into 3 categories – Standard Hotels, Superior Hotels and Deluxe Hotels.

Standard Hotels are ones which have basic amenities only. There is only one room category on offer. The rooms are simple, clean and air-conditioned with attached bathrooms. There is a dedicated dining hall in the hotel which cannot be termed as a Restaurant since it serves meals only to the resident guests at designated times and has a very limited choice of cuisine on offer. These were similar to the State Tourism run hotels. Examples of such hotels are: Hotel Lotus Nikko Sravasti, Hotel Lotus Nikko Kushinagar, The Sravasti Residency, The Vaishali Residency, Hotel Pawan Palace Sravasti etc.

Superior Hotels on the Buddhist Circuit destinations have a larger structure, larger inventory and better facilities than Standard Hotels. There is more than one room category on offer. A multi-cuisine restaurant serves Indian, Thai and Continental dishes. They are equivalent of three star hotels. Hotel Indo Hokke Rajgir, The Rajgir Residency and Hotel Sujata Bodhgaya are some of the examples of such hotels.

Deluxe Hotels are those which have good amenities on offer like swimming pool, massage centre, Business Centre etc. They have multiple room categories with Suites as the highest category. In addition to a multi-cuisine restaurant, it also houses a speciality restaurant with a bar. Hotels like Lumbini Hokke Hotel, Hotel Buddha Maya Garden Lumbini, Hotel Maurya Patna, Hotel Clarks Varanasi fall into this category.

Apart from Hotels there are Monasteries on the Buddhist Circuit build by various countries which have sizable Buddhist population in them. These Monasteries provide accommodation to their own nationals however some of them also take in pilgrims of other countries. They do not charge room rent but expect the guests to make a donation in return.

Since Buddhism is also getting popular in the western countries like Portugal, France, Norway, USA and Canada there is a huge opportunity for the hotel industry to invest in luxury accommodation at some of the Buddhist sites which receive a large number of Buddhist visitors every year.