What the season means for buyers
Who comes, and how
People travel to Puri from Odisha and from other states. For the 2025 Rath Yatra, East Coast Railway said it was running over 365 special trains from Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. It set up waiting areas, food stalls and One Station One Product stalls for local crafts, handlooms and appliqué work. That is 2025 information. We found no official visitor figure for 2026, so we give none.
Many come in family or neighbourhood groups. One person, often an elder or the group's organiser, books the trip. Travel agents and tour operators also bring groups. Odisha Tourism says accommodation in Puri is booked several months ahead during Ratha Jatra.
What they buy
- Travel: train and bus tickets, cabs, group transport and airport transfers. Odisha Tourism names Biju Patnaik International Airport at Bhubaneswar.
- Stay: hotels, lodges, homestays and dormitories, often for a few nights.
- Food: meals for large groups, and sweets. Odisha Tourism lists dishes such as dalma, kanika, khata, rasagola (called Kheera Mohan) and chhena poda.
- Rain gear and comfort: Odisha Tourism lists an umbrella or raincoat, waterproof shoes and quick-dry clothes among what to pack. July to September is the monsoon.
- Souvenirs: Odisha Tourism names appliqué work from Pipili, Pattachitra paintings from Raghurajpur, and handlooms and handicrafts from government emporiums.
- Photos, videos and trip help: guides and photographers, and phone repair or charging.
Who decides, and when they start
The group organiser decides on travel and stay, and starts months before. Food and rain gear are chosen in the last weeks and on the road. Souvenirs are bought on the way. Families who stay home for the festival shop for food and clothes at the last minute, and for guests. By the last week, the job is stock and service.
Other towns
Households in Ahmedabad's old city and in other places that hold a Rathyatra shop and cook for guests too. See our city pages for Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. We read an official source only for Ahmedabad's Rathyatra, and none on how it affects local sales, so plan from your own last year's numbers.
Language: when to use Odia and other languages
This guide is in English. Your festival copy should not be in English alone. Our language partners write Odia, and we do not machine-translate festival lines. There is no Odia text on this page. Here is how to choose.
- Use Odia for: boards, banners, menus, WhatsApp to local buyers, and local radio and print. Also festival offers to Odia families. The Odisha government's own pages offer Odia and English.
- Use the visitors' languages for: directions, prices, menus and booking messages. Visitors come from several states, so Hindi, Bengali, Telugu and English may all be needed. That is our view, based on where the special trains came from.
- Have a native speaker write and check it. Festival names and food names have local spellings and tone, and so do greetings.
- Check the type on a phone. Make sure scripts display properly in your ad tools and messages.
- Do not copy another state's festival copy. Each festival has its own words and foods.
Keep the English plain. A reader on a phone at a station should understand every line the first time.
A week-by-week plan
Count back from the central date for 2027, Monday 5 July. Move to the Odisha list when it comes out. Travel and stay sellers need more time than shops.
- Sixteen to twelve weeks before (from Monday 15 March 2027): Travel and stay sellers fix rates, rooms, vehicles and staff. Update your Google Business Profile with photos and festival-week details. Open bookings with a clear cancellation rule. Brief your language partner.
- Twelve to eight weeks before (from Monday 12 April 2027): Write the copy in Odia and the visitors' languages. Set up WhatsApp with permission. Talk to agents and tour operators. Shops and food sellers order stock and plan staff.
- Eight to four weeks before (from Monday 10 May 2027): Go live with offers and boards. Start ads in the cities your visitors come from, and locally. Publish pick-up, delivery and booking cut-off dates.
- The last four weeks: Push rain gear, travel food, souvenirs and last rooms. Check stock and bookings daily. Confirm vehicles and staff. Reply to every message the same day.
- The Yatra days: Keep the shop and the phone running. Keep messages short and warm. Do not push a hard sale in the middle of the procession. Expect road closures and slow deliveries, and ask your district administration about them.
- After the festival: Thank buyers. Ask for reviews. Clear leftover stock honestly. Record the numbers and what you will change next year.
Offers and creative ideas by business type
Hotels, lodges and homestays
- Festival-week packages with a clear price and check-in time, and a cancellation rule.
- Honest photos of the real rooms and the walk to the main road. Do not claim a view or distance you cannot prove.
- Group rates for families and travel groups, in writing.
- A short guide in the visitors' languages: where to eat, how to get around, what to carry in the rain.
Travel agents, tour operators and transport
- Group packages with a day-by-day plan and the number of seats or rooms you really hold.
- Add-on circuits. Odisha Tourism suggests combining Puri with Konark, about 35 km away, and Chilika.
- A booking desk on WhatsApp with one named contact.
- Clear refund rules if a train or a road is disrupted.
Food sellers, restaurants and sweet shops
- Group meal pre-orders with a cut-off date.
- Travel-friendly sweets and snacks, packed against the rain.
- Clear price lists, and pack sizes in the local language.
- Say what your food is. Do not label it temple food or mahaprasad unless it truly is. Odisha Tourism describes Mahaprasad as the sacred meal of the Jagannath Temple.
Handicraft, handloom and souvenir sellers
- Gift sets by budget, with the maker's story told truthfully.
- Packs that survive rain and travel.
- Online orders for visitors who cannot carry things home, with a last order date based on shipping time.
- Say where the craft is from. Use a place name such as Pipili or Raghurajpur only if the item really is from there.
Rain gear, footwear and travel essentials
- Festival kits: umbrella, raincoat, waterproof pouch and quick-dry clothes, at a clear price.
- Stalls near stations and bus stands, with signs in the visitors' languages.
- Honest notes on what each item can and cannot do in heavy rain.
Photographers, guides and local services
- Book slots early and publish them.
- Show real sample work, with the permission of the people in it.
- Be clear on where and when you may shoot. Ask the local authority about any rule, since we found none we can quote.
Online and retail sellers elsewhere
- Festival-season gifts and home items with a clear last order date.
- Greetings in the buyer's language. Keep them short and respectful.
- For gifts, see our guide to corporate gifts, which was written for Diwali and applies to other festivals too.
Channels that work in the season
- Google: A full Google Business Profile with festival-week hours, photos and a phone number that is answered. See local search engine optimisation (SEO).
- WhatsApp: Bookings and group enquiries, and past guests, with permission. See our WhatsApp marketing service.
- Instagram, Facebook and YouTube: Short videos of rooms and food, and of packs, with captions in the local language. See social media marketing.
- Search and social ads: Start early with a small budget, in the cities visitors come from. Then raise it for what brings bookings or orders. See performance marketing.
- Agents and tour operators: Clear rates and a named contact.
- Signs and stalls: Boards near stations, bus stands and shops, in more than one language.
Competition for the same visitors rises in the season. Check your own costs weekly. Our guide to digital marketing cost in India explains what drives them. We also have pages for hospitality and travel and local businesses.
Rules to check
Festival copy often uses words like free, limited and last rooms. Keep them honest. These are the same official and industry texts we use in our Diwali and Pongal guides.
- The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) Code, chapter I (dated 10 July 2025), says claims of verifiable fact must be provable. Ads must not mislead by implication, omission, ambiguity or exaggeration. A photo of a room, a distance or a view is a claim.
- The Central Consumer Protection Authority's Dark Patterns Guidelines, 2023 define false urgency as falsely stating or implying urgency or scarcity to mislead a user. Saying only two rooms are left when more are free falls under it.
- A 2026 amendment to the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules was announced by PIB on 10 September 2026. It says a price cut must show the reduced price and the prior price. The prior price is the lowest price in the 30 days before. PIB says it comes into force on 1 January 2027, so it will apply to e-commerce sales around Rath Yatra 2027. Ask a lawyer how it applies to you.
- Food sellers need the licence or registration that fits their business under food safety law. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) told online food sellers on 3 December 2024. It said product claims online must match the label on the pack. Ask a food-law adviser about your case.
- Local rules on stalls, signs, vehicles and crowd control come from the district administration and the local authority. We found none that we can quote, so ask them before you set up.
Our Diwali marketing ideas guide has the same rules in more detail.
A made-up worked example
Say a family-run lodge with 14 rooms plans for Rath Yatra 2027. This is a made-up lodge with made-up numbers. Sixteen weeks ahead, it updates its Google Business Profile with real photos. It opens bookings for the festival week with a clear cancellation rule. A native speaker writes the booking message in Odia, with Hindi and Bengali versions. It also writes a short rain-day guide for guests.
It spends ₹60,000 on photos, the language partner's time and a WhatsApp set-up. Boards and a small ad test take the rest. It gets 38 bookings. Each leaves ₹3,000 after costs. That is ₹1,14,000 in margin. Cost per booking is ₹60,000 divided by 38, about ₹1,579. The return is (₹1,14,000 minus ₹60,000) divided by ₹60,000, which is 90 percent.
It notes that 22 bookings came direct from past guests on WhatsApp and calls, 10 from calls on its Google profile and 6 from travel agents. It writes down that guests asked for umbrellas and a quick-dry laundry service, so it will offer both next year.
Mistakes to avoid: taste, timing, stock and delivery
- Taste. Do not use a deity's image, the chariots or a ritual as a joke or to sell a discount. Do not suggest the temple or any religious body endorses you. Keep greetings plain and respectful, and have a native speaker read them.
- Timing. Stay and travel sell months ahead, so a campaign that starts in June is late. Do not send a hard sale during the procession days. Dates can differ by a day, so confirm them against the state list.
- Stock. Food spoils faster in the rain, and rain gear sells out. Confirm suppliers early and keep a reserve for hero items.
- Delivery. Crowds and road closures slow couriers and vehicles. Publish last order dates and pick-up points, and keep a spare rider or vehicle.
- Language. English-only signs leave out visitors and local families.
- False urgency. Do not invent countdowns or claim rooms and stock are lower than they are.
How to measure Rath Yatra marketing
- Bookings or orders, by source: direct, WhatsApp, Google profile calls, agents, website, ads and walk-ins.
- Cost per booking or order: total spend divided by bookings or orders.
- Margin per booking or order after costs and cancellations.
- New and repeat guests or buyers, from your own records.
- Language results: did the Odia message bring more replies than the English one? Test small and compare.
- Stock sold and left over, sold-out items and late deliveries. Also note questions you could not answer.
Hold a one-hour review soon after the festival. Write three things to repeat, three to drop and three to try next year.
When to ask for help
Ask for help when your team cannot write Odia copy to a good standard. Ask when you take bookings online for the first time, or when last year's numbers were not recorded. Bring your room or stock list, last year's sales and your goal to the first talk.
