From IRCTC to ITC, stocks that may benefit from Ram Temple opening

The opening of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will add to India’s religious tourism in the coming months, said a recent report by Jefferies. ITC Hotels, EIH Limited, Jubilant FoodWorks, Devyani International, IRCTC, SpiceJet, IndiGo, Britannia Industries, and Make My Trip are some of the stocks, the note said. “Tourism contributed $194 billion to financial year 2018-19 (FY19’s) gross domestic product (GDP) pre-Covid, which came to $188 billion in FY22. The same is expected to grow to $443 billion by FY33, implying an 8 per cent compound annual growth rate. The tourism-to-GDP ratio in India at 6.8 per cent of GDP, puts it below most of the large emerging economies, which are higher by 3-5 ppts,” wrote Mahesh Nandurkar, managing director at Jefferies, in a co-authored note with Abhinav Sinha and Nishant Poddar.

 

Several popular religious destinations, according to Jefferies, attract annual tourist traffic of 10-30 million despite the existing infrastructural bottlenecks. The creation of a new religious tourist centre with improved connectivity and infrastructure, it said, can create a meaningfully large economic impact.
 

“Tamil Nadu -- ranked among the top 5 Indian states on strength of tourism infrastructure -- is the destination of choice among domestic & foreign tourists, followed closely by Uttar Pradesh on account of its religious, cultural, and historical significance,” the note said.