TravTalk India Online Magazine
The UP government is working to promote tourism in Ayodhya. The city has become a popular religious site for tourists. UP has always been known for the world-famous Taj Mahal in Agra, but after the speedy development of Ayodhya, a new tourist triangle could come into the picture.
Janice Alyosius
For many years, Uttar Pradesh has always been among the top three inbound tourist states, and for many years it has banked upon primarily two destinations, Agra and Varanasi, which became a major comfort factor for the state tourism department and also for a larger part of the industry that was happy selling run-of-the-mill itineraries,
refusing to innovate and to expand its portfolio.
Uttar Pradesh is now rediscovering itself and expanding its portfolios. It’s bringing in new destinations and recalibrating the existing ones to better place them in the market. With improved connectivity, routes are changing and new destinations are joining those that were previously popular.
The Government of Uttar Pradesh is diligently working to promote tourism in Ayodhya. The city has become very popular for the upcoming temples, making it a popular religious site for tourists. Uttar Pradesh has always been popular for the world-famous Taj Mahal, but after the speedy development of Ayodhya, the question that arises is “will Ayodhya take the limelight from Agra”? Will the popular golden triangle that used to be Delhi-Agra-Jaipur change?
Prateek Hira, Chairman, IATO Uttar Pradesh Chapter and President & CEO, Tornos, Director, River Rhapsody, stated that Uttar Pradesh, being a big state, has many lesser known destinations that till now have not been brought forth or valued by the industry. COVID-19 gave a lot of time to tour operators to rediscover the state and re-plan tours with new flavours, so coming up with new itineraries will be an evolution and a welcome one. Speaking of changes in the travel itinerary of Uttar Pradesh, he said, “‘Changed’ in my opinion is a wrong word; a better word would be ‘evolved’. Just as products get redundant after a time when they reach their optimum sales, so does an itinerary. Law of diminishing returns very much applies here too,” said Hira.
He added, “Ayodhya is the newest, so it obviously requires much more focus and investment, which the government is doing in order to bring it at par with other developed tourist destinations in the state. Agra is one of the inbound feeder destinations, not only for the state of Uttar Pradesh but also for many other states in India, so it has been and will always be at the top of the chart.”
He further added, “Agra is one such destination that in itself is the crown of India’s tourist destinations, what with a robust and well-developed tourist infrastructure that is constantly growing. The Agra metro is one example of it. The introduction of multiple flights to Agra is another. The smart city project in Agra is yet another example of the ongoing development of Agra, which will benefit Agra’s tourism industry. The Government of Uttar Pradesh has also taken up the mammoth task of training guides in Agra and Fatehpur Sikri, which is a welcome step as it wants to revive Fatehpur Sikri as a must-do excursion from Agra. Similarly, Bateshwar is being taken up with all seriousness and so is Chambal Sanctuary and the Lion Safari, which are now a part of the eco–tourism circuit of Uttar Pradesh where the state forest department is doing a lot of work. All these places fall in close proximity to Agra and will surely help Agra to increase the average length of stay and offer much more than just the Taj Mahal.”
Sunil C. Gupta, Chairman Northern Region, IATO, said, “Ayodhya is a place for religious tourism and Agra is a place for cultural tourism. Agra is well established and is famous globally. Therefore, Agra does not require any promotion, since Ayodhya is in process of developing, it needs attention. When talking of inbound, Taj Mahal is in the top priority list of tourists. Ayodhya has just been added and the inbound travel is yet to start with full force and henceforth, the temple development will take few more years. In my opinion, the two places offer different perspectives on tourism and cannot be compared.
He added, “The golden triangle will not change, but a new triangle can potentially be made.” That could be Lucknow-Ayodhya-Varanasi-Allahabad, so a new itinerary can be expected to come into the picture. Also, a lot of international tourists are not religiously driven, meaning the expectation from the inflow of international tourists in Ayodhya is not very high but, if the tourists are driven then the reason would be Ayodhya being a developed, modern tourist spot that will flourish by 2024″.
Pradeep Kumar Rai, General secretary, Tourism Welfare Association, Uttar Pradesh, stated, “Most of the international tourists before the pandemic wanted to visit Agra, but now almost 50 per cent of travellers will divert to Ayodhya, the reason being curiosity.” Not only the tourists, but also the travel agents, are intrigued by the development of Ayodhya and want to explore places that are new. The travellers have visited Agra many times and now avoid repeating places. With the new upcoming destinations and infrastructure development, tourists are looking forward to visiting Ayodhya. Travel companies will definitely sell the traditional destinations, but changing the itinerary and showcasing other destinations will be good for tourism in Uttar Pradesh. ” Ayodhya is a new attraction for travellers not only in India but abroad also.
It will become the world’s largest spiritual tourist destination in coming years. It will help to attract around five crore tourists every year, which is going to increase the possibilities for tourism in Uttar Pradesh. Revealing more, the government plans to make Ayodhya one of the world’s biggest tourist cities in India. People from across the world are expected to visit the spot to offer prayers at the temple. Uttar Pradesh can potentially witness its own Golden Triangle of Varanasi, Ayodhya, and Agra; Lucknow will be the new centre point for all three connections.
