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Press Release

Uttar Pradesh to develop new airports at Bareilly, Moradabad, Aligarh and Azamgarh to boost tourist arrivals: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath

Aug 27, 2018

Top priority being given to safety & security of visitors to the State

 

FICCI-MRSS reports suggest wide-ranging steps to boost tourism in UP

 

Two-day UP Travel Mart 2018 poised to transform State's tourism map

                 

LUCKNOW, 27 August 2018.  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 Shri 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)

Shri 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'.

Prof. 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.

Mr. 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.

Mr. Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General of FICCI, said that the focus of Uttar Pradesh was on developing new tourism circuits, cleanliness, safety and upgrading rail, road and air connectivity. This would undoubtedly create the infrastructure and an ambience for increase in visitor arrivals. UPTM, for which FICCI has partnered with Uttar Pradesh Tourism, has now become a platform to showcase the tourism facilities and is destined to transform the tourism map of the state.

Ms. C Indhumathi, Managing Director, Uttar Pradesh State Tourism Development Corporation, gave an overview to the delegates of the 'Tent Cities' being developed on the PPP model for the upcoming 'Kumbh' 2019.

Mr. L. K. Jhunjhunwala, immediate Past Chairman, FICCI UP State Council and CMD, KM Group; Mr. Garish Oberoi, President, FHRAI & General Secretary, UPHRA and Mr. Prateek Hira, Chairman, IATO, Uttar Pradesh Chapter, also shared their perspectives on tourism in the state.

The two-day event is hosting 50 tour operators from 23 countries and 18 domestic operators who will interact with sellers of the Uttar Pradesh tourism product.

 

The FICCI-MRSS knowledge paper, 'Uttar Pradesh - A new growth driver of tourism investment in India, states that the development of Infrastructure is a prerequisite to gain higher tourist numbers as well as tourism receipts, and requires the combined effort of the community, tourists and private and public sectors with a regulation and monitoring mechanism in place.

The paper suggests the following five steps to maintain the momentum of the most important cornerstones of support services in the country:

 

1) Initiate Deep Involvement with the Private Sector players' allow deeper engagement - owners can play a vital role to development of the tourism industry in India and have the potential to create new destination hotspot for attracting new tourists from abroad. Such partnerships bring together stakeholders with different objectives and skills, and resources in a formal or informal voluntary partnership to improve the attractiveness of a regional destination, its productivity, associated market efficiency, and the overall

management of tourism.

 

2) Showcase investors the value in investing in Uttar Pradesh- The investors have to be lured into India by showcasing the rich cultural heritage and introducing new concepts conceived off/ implemented. While ROI will be an important factor in this, the investors would also like to choose India based on the lucrative incentives and long term association it is going to enjoy with the State.

 

3) Exploit the Digital Channel to disseminate investment/ marketing success stories - The country has a wide array of Digital Channels, which can be leveraged to disseminate the success stories. 

 

4) Leverage the power of data - Data and analytics are the mainstay of future. This needs to be leveraged and a dedicated insight session needs to be undertaken in order to provide relevant inputs to the state strategy team to streamline/ tweak campaigns and attract more tourists to the State. 

 

5) Emulate Success stories of nearby States - Success stories of nearby states can be emulated, and can be replicated in small areas to start with. The Governance machinery needs to act in a concerted manner to achieve this.


The FICCI-MRSS knowledge paper, titled 'Uttar Pradesh - A conglomeration of Culture, Religious and Heritage Tourism'  highlights the development of tourism experiences across vibrant cities through attractions, nature, wildlife, adventure, food, handicraft, heritage, religion and culture. It also points  out that UP is adorned with various holy shrines and pilgrimage spots - a few World Heritage Sites, full of joyous festivals which plays an important role in the politics, education, culture, industry, agriculture and tourism of India.


The paper states that UP is at the cusp of a transformation in terms of its vision, mission and execution of its tourism strategy. The State Government has taken bold but definitive steps to augment tourist flow and invest in the State. It suggests the following six steps for the  promotion of tourism in the State:


1. Set up a continuous monitoring and evaluation unit - Data is the new oil and intelligence is the stepping stone for success. Nowadays monitoring of initiatives at all stakeholder level viz. the Government, Supply end (Travel industry suppliers) and Demand end (Voice of the Consumer) is not being mapped and ploughed back  into the intelligence system. A Project Monitoring Unit may be set up under the aegis of

Department of Tourism. Monitoring actions and strategies from time to time is also an

absolute necessity.

2. Reward and Recognition for largest investor/ best investor/ most innovative investor/Green investor etc in UP Tourism Mart - recognition of Investors in an appropriate forum would help generating interest amongst the investor community and broadbase the investor base considerably.

3. Encourage Travel writers, Bloggers, Reviewers as a follow up action - This would be a "influence the influencer model of implementation". Encouraging these influencers to write about the investment climate in Uttar Pradesh will help in generating  awareness featuring positive stories about UP as a favourite investment Destination in Tourism Properties

4. Conduct a Satisfaction Survey for the Investors on the investment climate - It is suggested that an Investor Confidence Survey may be conducted amongst Investors in Uttar Pradesh Tourism vis a vis Investors in Tourism in adjoining States/ main crowd pullers. This will provide a few high points or learnings to work on. Ideally this  should be done by appointing a third party agency having high level of expertise and  experience in tracking the tourism market.

5. Carry out a brand assessment study for UP Tourism - This should be done amongst all stakeholders in the State, Country and International levels. This will provide inputs to tweak the communication modes and vehicles if required

6. Co-Competition with the neighbouring states- A co-creation effort needs to be undertaken as nothing happens in silos these days. Exchange of tourists between states will only lead to healthy and sustainable tourism goals and will support attainment of vision and mission in the long run.


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