Govt mulls roping in more states to promote Buddhist tourism

NEW DELHI: Government is planning to rope in more states to be integrated in the Buddhist circuit apart from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to promote Buddhist tourism.

"There are several Buddhist destinations across India which are important from pilgrimage perspective. Therefore it is the need of the hour to develop these sites in terms of infrastructure, sanitation, maintenance, connectivity, safety and security," Tourism Minister Shripad Naik said at the 'International Meet on Buddhist Tourism', organised by Assocham here.

Holy places associated with Gautam Buddha in India are Bodhagaya, where he attained enlightenment, Saranath near Varanasi where he preached his first sermon and Kushinagar, near Gorakhpur where he achieved 'mahanirvana'.

The other important tourist places associated with Buddhism are Sanchi, Vaishali, Nalanda, Amravati and Nagargunakonda.

"The ministry is planning to rope in more states to be integrated in the Buddhist circuit," Naik said, adding "it is working aggressively towards promoting Buddhist tourism circuit in the country."

The governments of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and the International Finance Corporation have entered into an agreement for advisory services for designing and implementing a strategy for integrated tourism development of Buddhist circuit.

Highlighting the importance of the sector in creating employment opportunities, Naik said the development of necessary infrastructure like hotels, resorts, roads, leisure clubs and others would spur job creation across the region.

"The ministry also advocates promotion of bilateral tourism ties with South Asian countries like Thailand, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Japan, Korea, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bhutan, Singapore and other countries with sizeable Buddhist population to exchange greater volume of tourists to and fro," he said.