In a bid to give a major thrust to travel and tourism in Uttar Pradesh, the state government has decided to enhance air connectivity by developing new airports at Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh and Azamgarh. Apart from these locations, the process of developing international airports at Jewar in NCR Delhi and Kushinagar has already been initiated.
This was stated here today by Yogi Adityanath, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, while inaugurating the fourth edition of the Uttar Pradesh Travel Mart (UPTM) 2018, organized UP Tourism and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)
Adityanath said that the state government had accorded the highest priority to the safety and security of tourists. Uttar Pradesh, he said, was a pioneer in spiritual and heritage tourism and the state was committed to provide safe travel and other facilities to tourists and pilgrims and expose them to the rapid development strides takes by the state.
He said the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in January 2019 slated to be organized at Varanasi and the ‘Kumbh’ mela which is expected to attract 12 crore pilgrims and visitors from across the country and overseas would be the USP of Uttar Pradesh as it strives to achieve the top slot in terms of domestic and foreign visitor arrivals.
The Chief Minister said the state government had chalked out a programme for the envoys of 192 countries to visit ‘Prayag Raj’ in December 2018 to get a first-hand experience of the spiritual dimensions of the state.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister and other dignitaries released two knowledge papers by FICCI & MRSS, namely, ‘Uttar Pradesh–A conglomeration of Culture, Religious and Heritage Tourism’ and ‘Uttar Pradesh – A new growth driver of tourism investment in India’.
Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Tourism Minister of Uttar Pradesh, pointed out that the state was gearing towards establishing world-class infrastructure in the next two years. She said that tourism infrastructure development proposals worth Rs. 20,000 crore have been generated from the recently concluded UP Tourism Investors’ Summit. The State Tourism Department, she said, was fast moving towards concretising the MoUs arrived at during the summit.
The Tourism Minister said that the state offers an enriching fare in all facets of tourism and assured the foreign and domestic tour operators of the best experience in hospitality in Uttar Pradesh.
Awanish Kumar Awasthi, Additional Chief Secretary & Director General of Tourism, Government of Uttar Pradesh, said that at the Chief Minister’s behest, the state was gearing towards becoming the foremost in the country in terms of domestic and foreign tourist arrivals. The development of tourism was being accorded high priority as travel and tourism leads to growth and has a multiplier effect on job creation.
Uttar Pradesh, he said, had to offer a lot to satiate the spiritual and religious fervour of the visitors as it is the birth state of Lord, Ram, Lord Krishna and is the place where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon. The state also boasts of having the entire Sufi circuit, Bundelkhand which has more forts than Rajasthan, Varanasi for those seeking ‘Moksha’ and the ‘Kumbh’, billed as the largest congregation of humanity.
