Domestic Tourism: Post-Pandemic Revival of Travel and Tourism Industry in Uttar Pradesh

Since the pandemic has disrupted the activities of travel and tourism worldwide, its multidimensional impact has been observed. As it is evident that tourism industry is capable of generating employment opportunities multifolds, all the people in the chain from tourists to service providers have been badly hit in terms of the transactional behaviour. Closed boundaries, restricted transportation and COVID protocols are some of the issues which have changed the thought process of key industry players, Government stake –holders, policy makers and tourism organizations. Their attention to accelerate the growth of tourism has changed from inbound tourism to strengthen and improve the domestic tourism. The study explores issues and suggested strategies for recovery of tourism industry in Uttar Pradesh. The study evaluates the informations retrieved from secondary sources (news, articles, magazine, and reports) to recommend the possible ways to deal with the impact of pandemic on Tourism industry. Domestic tourism, whether it is Religious, Adventure, Sport, Holiday or Heritage; if encouraged with proper strategies, policies and framework can be fruitful to accelerate the speed of tourism in the country. On the similar thoughts Government of Uttar Pradesh has been giving due emphasis in this direction by implementing schemes and strengthening tourism infrastructure such as One district one product (ODOP), attractive holiday packages for tourists, developing religious circuits (Ramayana circuit, Buddhist circuit, Mahabharat circuit, Shaktipeeth circuit), Construction of Ram Mandir, Renovation of Kahsi Vishvanath Corridor are some of the ongoing projects represent the holistic approach to enhance the experience of tourism. The experts and key industry players are hoping to have overcome with this situation as market comes back to its normal situation with the development of vaccine and expecting ‘Revenge travel’ to gain momentum in 2021.