TravTalk India Online Magazine
There are numerous lesser-known destinations in Uttar Pradesh that have huge tourism potential. Realizing this fact, the state government is seriously attempting to showcase and market the state’s tourism attractions and offerings. Recently, held IATO Convention in Lucknow has been one of the steps in this direction.
Inder Raj Ahluwalia
UP always had innumerable tourist sites lying in-waiting. Now the wait is over. And the recently-uncovered destinations slated for development are coming thick and fast. Mukesh Kumar Meshram, Principal Secretary, Department of Tourism & Culture, Uttar Pradesh, is brimming with ideas revolving around showcasing and marketing the state’s plethora of tourist attractions and offerings. He feels the post-COVID trend shows tourism has picked up, people are travelling with families, and want experiential tourism. They want to move to rural areas and eco-tourism sites, and this is one of UP’s many trump cards, with the state having boundless such sites on offer.
Meshram feels UP has everything tourists seek. There is an abundance of heritage, culture, nature, palaces, forts, crafts and religious sites. This offering of almost every segment makes the state attractive for tourists across the board.
There are a hundred lesser-known destinations that have huge tourism potential. Agra and Varanasi apart, Dudhwa National Park, Kushinagar, the Chitrakoot area, and Mathura, which is on the ISKON route, have enormous potential. Ayodhya is becoming increasingly popular. The Maha Kumbh in 2025 in Thyagraj will be a mega-event, with some 40 crore visitors expected. The ‘cup is literally spilling over’!
The state’s Buddhist sites also boast of huge potential. They should get more attention and be further developed. There is a need to attract more Buddhist traffic.
Against this overall backdrop of huge growth potential, our travel industry will have to step up a notch or two and do rigorous branding and marketing. The pillars of our effort have to be ‘Trade, Technology, and Tourism’. Tourism marketing is now tech-driven with artificial intelligence (AI) and social media becoming significant marketing tools.
Today, tourists themselves become ‘brand ambassadors’. They help our marketing efforts by promoting places they visit. So, it is very important to create a congenial atmosphere, offering them what they like, for instance, more cleanliness, increased comfort levels, good accommodation, hassle-free stays, and safety and security. Our ability to deliver all this will determine the level of our success. With tourists on their side, state tourist boards can achieve great success.
Meshram feels the recently held IATO Convention in Lucknow has been a boon, providing varied and great exposure. On their part, UP Tourism is working to ensure that they garner maximum advantage from this.
Prateek Hira – Chairman – IATO Uttar Pradesh Chapter, feels UP’s resolve to be the top tourism state in India is commendable and the recently held 37th IATO Convention will help enormously by providing a direct and meaningful access to all stakeholders and investors in the tourism sector. Tour operators are the first line in the tourism business, selling destinations and attracting tourists. So having them see the product is a boon.
UP Tourism has been working by way of a four-pronged strategy, namely, Identification, Planning, Time-bound Implementation and Quantifiable Monitoring.
Hira feels the mapping of the state’s tourism circuits of spiritual importance was a huge step in this direction. Be it Ramayana, Krishna, Buddha, Jain or Sufi saints, all were mapped strategically to boost tourism revenues. Against this backdrop, it’s fair to say that UP has become the proverbial tourist ‘land of plenty’.
