Ayodhya: India's newest destination in the making

For tourism to live and be lively, it is imperative that we offer new avenues to tourists; these could be new programmes, new products or even lesser-known destinations. Offering a new destination is the most difficult task, as it requires, a huge investment by way of creating infrastructure, facilities, amenities, and marketing, and this only becomes possible, when the government is willing to pitch in and earmark a proper budget to develop a destination with an aim to make it welcoming for tourists.

- Prateek Hira

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known to be a creator of tourism destinations. It all started with the Sabarmati river-front development, the creation of Rann Utsav and Ahmedabad Heritage City Redevelopment in his own state of Gujarat, during his tenure as its Chief Minister. Later, his incumbent continued the trend and created the Statue of Unity in Kevadia, making a small unknown town of Gujarat, a new tourist destination.

Taking inspiration from the Prime Minister and taking the momentum forward, the visionary Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, took the pledge to make Ayodhya, India’s newest tourist destination. Till the city was embroiled in the legal battle of deciding between the existence of a mosque or a temple, nothing was actually done in Ayodhya. In fact, Ayodhya a town only one and a half hours away from the capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow was left untouched all this while, with no development projects, not even proper basic amenities for the residents.

In the year 2019, the Supreme Court of India restored the rights to Hindus, declaring that the city had an ancient Ram Temple, and immediately thereafter, Ayodhya redevelopment took wings. The vision of the government of Uttar Pradesh is clearly to surpass the annual footfall of Mecca and Vatican in Ayodhya and to cater to this influx, Ayodhya is being re-planned, restructured, and readied. Much of this has already been done, and much is being done in a time-bound manner, very strategically. The projections of footfall in Ayodhya may be a bit worrisome for the advocates of responsible tourism, but the government is looking at this aspect too, and thus, the infrastructure is being readied in tune with the expected inflow (or overflow) of pilgrims and tourists. The new master plan of Ayodhya is in place for restructuring this ancient holy city, without disturbing its innate character and has taken the aspect of huge footfall expected in the coming days.