UP Investors summit: Ideas for promoting religious tourism

Lucknow, 2018.02.23 (TOI) Deputy chief ministers Dinesh Sharma and Keshav Prasad Maurya made a pitch for religious tourism in the state during the Investors’ Summit. Sharma invited investments through public-private partnership for projects like the London Eye, underwater restaurants and musical floats in places like Ayodhya, Mathura and Allahabad. The sector saw 27 MoUs being signed during the opening day of the summit.

“The London Eye is a swing on which people take a ride, get a view of London and take pictures. The city makes crores through this. Can’t we make something like this in Ayodhya? Or something like an underwater restaurant where tales of Ayodhya or Shri Ram are played or a steamer where the Rasa Lila of Vrindavan is shown,” Sharma offered.

He also made a pitch for tour packages, saying that after visiting the Taj in Agra, one could see the evening aarti next to the Ganga, or Mathura and Vrindavan. “In Jerusalem, there is a church where it is said that Jesus Christ left the mark of his palm. Thousands of people visit it every year and the country makes crores of rupees.

When the PM celebrated Diwali in Ayodhya, so many people came to see it and those people must have put up in hotels. This increases the potential for tourism and we have taken such events into account for our tourism policy,” he said. Maurya spoke about his visit to Germany where he saw that the Rhine river was being utilised for tourism and said that India rivers had much more potential. “The banks of the river were developed and there was some old fort nearby.UP has so much more to see. There are cities like Ayodhya, Mathura, Kashi, Shravasti, Kaushambi, Kapilavastu in the state, which are very important for religious tourism,” said Maurya.