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Govt. to take spiritual route to spur tourism
Context
Promoting tourism in India
Popularizing domestic tourism
The government plans to promote religious tourism in the country, in order to increase domestic travel as close to 60% of domestic tourism in India is religious-based
Stats
Domestic tourism: The number of domestic tourist visits in 2017 =about 1.8 billion, up about 12% from the over 1.6 billion in the previous year
Foreign tourism: Foreign tourist arrivals in 2017 stood at over 10 million, a growth of 15.6% over 8.8 million such arrivals in 2016. This resulted in foreign exchange earnings of $ 27.6 billion last year, a growth of 20.8% over 2016
Other steps being taken by government
- Popularizing yoga and Ayurveda among millennials (a person reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century) to attract both domestic and foreign tourists
- Investment in creating infrastructure around religious places
- Swadesh Darshan scheme
- Pilgrimage Rejuvenation And Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD)
- The Tourism Ministry recently launched ‘Yogi of the Racetrack’, a minute-long advertisement on yoga, that received more than 11.5 million hits in a week
- Changing the attitude of people towards foreign tourists: Respecting privacy of the tourists and not bugging them for selfies etc
Swadesh Darshan& PRASAD
Under these schemes Ministry of Tourism provides Central Financial Assistance (CFA) to State Governments/Union Territory Administrations, for various tourism projects subject to availability of funds, liquidation of pending utilization certificates and adherence to the scheme guidelines
- Swadesh scheme: Under the Swadesh Darshan scheme, thirteen thematic circuits have been identified, for development namely: North-East India Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, Himalayan Circuit, Coastal Circuit, Krishna Circuit, Desert Circuit, Tribal Circuit, Eco Circuit, Wildlife Circuit, Rural Circuit, Spiritual Circuit, Ramayana Circuit and Heritage Circuit
- Focus: Development of particular thematic circuit consisting of various religious/spiritual destination in a State and Union Territory
- PRASAD: Under the PRASAD scheme thirteen sites have been identified for development, namely: Amritsar, Ajmer, Dwaraka, Mathura, Varanasi, Gaya, Puri, Amaravati, Kanchipuram, Vellankanni, Kedarnath, Kamakhya and Patna
- Focus: Development and beautification of the identified pilgrimage destinations
