The students of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow were on a temple trail as part of their destination marketing course on Sunday, December 3. The 60-odd management students visited different temples and places of worship in the state capital as part of their project, as stated in a report by IANS.

It is said that based on their experiences, the students will now pen down the Unique Selling Points (USPs) for each religious site from historical and spiritual perspectives. Additionally, they will come up with ideas to make these religious places more attractive as tourist destinations.

Sharing details about this, the students said, “It was a wonderful experience to visit various temples of different types and architecture. The tourists visiting each temple were very different and the atmosphere too varied.” Further, a faculty member said, "The temple trail was an eye-opener, taking the students through the deep and diverse history of each temple, unleashing the new side of Lucknow. As students of destination marketing, it helped them recognise and appreciate the significance of the places around and how they can be woven meaningfully into a curated pilgrimage circuit for the target audience.”
 

Faculty shares insights

Destination marketing faculty member Prof Devashish Das Gupta, who introduced the religious trip, said, “As part of the immersion exercise in the course, we used to take students to major monuments and parks. For the very first time, we thought of this religious immersion trip to add a new image about Lucknow, which is otherwise popular for Nawabs and kebabs,” as stated in a report by IANS.

Students, he said, will earn a maximum of 15 marks for writing a good report. The report will include a religious tourism itinerary and a market strategy, including digital and social media interventions. Students will prepare a need gap analysis benchmarking with the best practices across India, he added.

“All the temples we visited were unique in their historical significance, structure and architecture. The walk helped us realise that Lucknow, which is known as a city of Nawabs, also holds a key presence on the religious front,” he stated with IANS.