Promoting religious tourism

The UP government held Deepotsav in Ayodhya on the banks Saryu River.  The Dept of Tourism is giving subsidy to hoteliers to set up hotels and resorts in the state in order to exploit the tourism potential of more religious sites across the state.

Janice Alyosius

The Department of Tourism, Uttar Pradesh have taken initiative to showcase Ayodhya, especially Deepotsav, which is the flagship event of the UP government. On the fifth Deepotsav of Ayodhya, more than 9 lakh lamps were lit up on the banks of the Saryu River, breaking all the previous records. The Deepotsav program and the construction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya will boost the tourism opportunities in UP. About 60 operators from across India were invited for the event by the UP govt along with people from media, press, travel bloggers and travel writers. Special guests from embassies, The High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago, the ambassador of Vietnam, High Commissioner of Kenya and a huge delegation from Korea, attended the event. Prateek Hira, President, Tornos and State Chairman, IATO said, “We are very excited as tour operators because after a long sabbatical, Deepotsav comes as a welcome change. The UP government is quite proactive and focused on promoting tourism to make it a driver of growth and development, for the state of UP.”

Hira commented, “Uttar Pradesh has done wonderfully well in terms of COVID management, we have ensured that all the guests invited for Deepotsav are double vaccinated.  CM Yogi Adityanath is particular about the COVID management, hence all officers worked amazingly well to keep COVID at Bay”

The UP govt. is also planning huge Ramayana circuit to promote religious tourism. Buddhism is practiced in major parts of Uttar Pradesh like Kaushambi, Sankisa, Kushinagar, and Sravasti. Mukesh Meshram, Principal Secretary, Tourism and Culture, Govt. of UP, said, “The govt. has envisioned to develop Ayodhya as an international tourist destination. Construction of international airport is going on; roads are being developed and more than 100 guides have been trained in Sanskrit. UP has tremendous potential, we have a lot of spiritual and religious sites that are not properly marketed and the government is proactively working on it. The UP government is offering 15-20% subsidy to the hoteliers to set up hotels and resorts in UP and on purchase of land, an exemption on land duty is also being offered.”

Meshram said that the vision of re-creating Ayodhya is to re-create some of the facets of Ramayana. “We want to transfer the values, ethics, the morality which the Ramcharitmanas and Valmiki Ramayan preaches. Ayodhya is more of pilgrim place than a tourist place, so it is more of religious tourism that we aim to promote.”