Students of the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIML) went on a temple trail as part of their destination marketing course.

The 60 odd management students visited different temples and places of worship in the state capital on Sunday as part of their project.

Based on their experiences, the students will now pen down USP’s for each religious site from historical and spiritual perspectives and come up with ideas to make these religious places more attractive as tourist destinations.

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.”

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.”

Destination marketing faculty 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.”

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.

“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.

(The story has been published via a syndicated feed with a modified headline.)