A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON RELIGIOUS TOURISM IN UTTAR PRADESH

Tourism is the activities of societies traveling to and residing in places outside their usual atmosphere for not more than one successive year for relaxation, business and other commitments not related to the application of a movement waged from within the place stayed. If we talk about religious tourism, Uttar Pradesh is one of the most famous states in India which is famous for its religious and cultural customs due to presence of famous religious rivers like Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati along with various religious places like Varanasi, Vrindavan, Mathura, Sarnath, Chitrakoot, Ayodhya, Hastinapur, Allahabad, Vindhyachal etc. There are many religious sites of Hindus in Uttar Pradesh among which Varanasi situated on the bank of river Ganges is very famous, Allahabad is famous for its mythical river Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati, Mathura, famous for the birthplace of Lord Krishna, Ayodhya, famous for the birthplace of Lord Rama is another famous religious destination. Uttar Pradesh is not only famous for Hindus religion but for Buddhists too. Sarnath- Kushinagar –Saraswati, the place where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon is one of the most famous Buddhist religious destinations in the world. In terms of Islamic religious destination, Uttar Pradesh is famous for mazaars of Sufi saints, HazratSalimChisti at Fatehpur Sikri, Dewa Sharif in Lucknow are a famous religious tourist destination. This paper highlights the religious tourism in Uttar Pradesh, its current policy and framework which is based on religious sites of Uttar Pradesh. The paper highlights how religious tourism industry generates revenue to the state by providing religious services, transport facilities, accommodation service, etc. but it can't be ignored that due to lack of proper understanding, inadequate policy, proper management, proper infrastructure, absence of rules and regulation and proper environmental and cultural sustainability at place of religious tourism destination religious tourism industry is lacking behind.