AYODHYA: With the proposed Ram Temple set for January 2024 inauguration, travel agents from across the country have set their sights on the temple town to make a killing. Hotels, guesthouses and dharamshalas in the temple town are flooded with requests for bulk bookings between January 20 and January 26, 2024, when the inauguration is likely to take place.

“A majority of these requests are from travel agents, who are blocking the rooms for renting out at exorbitant rates to devotees who are likely to make a beeline to the town during that week of January 2024, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would lead the inauguration ceremony,” said the owner of a luxury hotel in Ayodhya.
General secretary of Ram Mandir Trust, Champat Rai, had also said that 10,000 guests would attend the consecration ceremony. Rai told TOI that they have given the dates between January 15 and January 24 to the PM, but the actual date would be decided by him.

The owner of another luxury hotel said that travel agents have offered to book the entire hotel by paying higher tariffs and full payment in advance. “These travel firms have appointed their local agents to get the bookings done,” he said.