Astro Tourism, The Next Big Travel Trend For 2023

The age we live in today has afforded us a way of life that has no parallel in our history. But the vastly differentiated and specialised labour of today, which has resulted in productivity of immense measure, has also brought in a routine into peoples’ lives. This routine, by design, can get so tedious that it, in turn, has spawned off an industry by itself. The tourism industry owes a large part of its existence to this tedium.

Tourism is an industry where personal passions overlap with the desire to break this routine. This opens the door for very specific types of tourism. And over the last couple of years, the field of Astro tourism has surfaced.

What is Astro Tourism?

Tourism specifically linked to astronomy-related experiences constitutes Astro tourism. Astro tourists travel to locations that afford a great stargazing experience, or travel for specific celestial events such as eclipses or meteor showers. While we normally associate Astro tourism with night sky viewing, plenty of daytime activities too fall under the definition. These include solar observation, solar eclipse chasing, and experiencing solar transits (when Mercury or Venus moves across the Sun, much in the same way as the Moon does during the solar eclipse). Often, non-celestial events too can come under Astro tourism, like when people travel for a rocket launch, or visiting an experience centre, observatory or planetarium.

Why is it a thing Now?

Astro tourism in India is a shadow of what it is in much of the Western World but is fast catching up. Space is in the news constantly because of the intense activities happening in the domain of space exploration. Increased focus has been brought in due to the growth of private investments in space exploration and space tourism (note: space tourism involves travelling to space, while Astro tourism involves experiencing the universe from the Earth). The massive economic upward mobility of the Indian working class over the last two decades has ensured that people have more money to spend on newer experiences.

A good metric to evaluate the mental bandwidth of Indians that Astronomy is increasingly occupying, is by looking at the large number of colleges that offer undergraduate courses in astrophysics and aerospace engineering. This is something that has exploded over the last ten years. Parents today want to and can afford to give a diverse bouquet of career paths for their children, and experiencing astronomy is a great way to kindle that spark of interest in this field.

Where can one go?

Astro tourism has been around for a while now. There is a thriving industry that supplies telescopes, cameras, mounts and other equipment needed by amateur astronomers and astrophotographers. Places like Ladakh, Spiti, Kutch and Kodaikanal have been hosting stargazers for decades. But each of these experiences need a lot of investment of time, effort and money, and are consequently the purview of only the most passionate Astro tourists.

What’s been happening over the last few years is the mushrooming of observatories, experience centres and communities focused on astronomy. People don’t need to go to Ladakh to have a great stargazing experience. They can find it at the nearest holiday destination, whether it is the hill stations of Mukteshwar and Madikeri, or seaside towns in Goa and Pondicherry. They do not need to learn about complex and expensive equipment needed for observations, much less invest in them. The experience centres and observatories possess state-of-the-art telescopes that provide a fantastic celestial experience. This has lowered the entry barrier for Astro tourism significantly, allowing many more people to become Astro tourists. With more people travelling for astronomy experiences, there will soon be a spurt of experience centres across the country, creating the ecosystem that would sustain the growth of this industry.

Over the last couple of years, a large number of luxury hotels and resorts have begun offering astronomy experiences to their guests. The guests, who normally would have had access to excellent culinary offerings, adventure sports, wildlife tours, and health and wellness experiences, will now be able to explore the heavens too. And this trend has exponentially grown over the last year, with no signs of slowing down. 2023 will be a year of massive expansion for this industry.

What’s Next?

As astronomy experiences become a thing for the masses, we can expect the intervention of the biggest driver of growth in the industry – the Government – to get involved. Today, Astro tourism has already captured the imagination of various government bodies. The Rajasthan Government’s Science and Technology Department organizes stargazing events in Jaipur. Madhya Pradesh supports astronomy outreach programs through various private organizations. Uttarakhand is developing a village as a destination for Astro tourism. The UT of Ladakh has revealed its intent of creating a Dark Sky Place (an international accreditation that certifies a location once it meets certain standards that make it optimum for offering astronomy experiences) around the Han Le Observatory. It’s a matter of time before big tourist hubs like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu recognize the potential of Astro tourism and aggressively promote it. 

Astro tourism is arguably the most promising industry within tourism today, with a huge potential that is waiting to be unlocked. Its path into the future is certainly one that is worth observing closely.

Paul Savio is the Co-Founder and CEO of  Starscapes