India promotes religious tourism to attract Sri Lankan travellers

While many Sri Lankan Buddhist pilgrims visit India for religious purposes, there are a lot of untapped Buddhist hotspots that pilgrims have not heard or seen in India. Andhra Pradesh which is in the East of India has many Buddhist hotspots. This was revealed at the 'Incredible India Road Show' held at the Taj Samudra Hotel in Colombo last week.

Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, . Y.K Sinha, who was present at the road show said, "Sri Lanka and India has a long term strong relationship for decades and our interaction has been intense, robust and very productive.

India continues to be the largest source of tourists coming into Sri Lanka recording 316,000 tourists last year. Till May this year around 146,000 Indian tourists have visited Sri Lanka which is a very healthy growth rate.

Similarly Sri Lankan tourists visit India in large numbers. Last year 4 per cent of total tourists arrivals into India were Sri Lankans."

He also mentioned that the e-tourist visa agreement between India and Sri Lanka which was implemented on April 14 this year is to be improved to make it much easier for tourists to visit India. Later this year the visa fee which is US$ 60 now will be reduced to US$ 25 to make it more affordable for people to visit India.

There is a lot of co-operation from the Buddhist pilgrims visiting India from Sri Lanka, especially to Bodh Gaya, Sanchi, Kushinagar in North India and Patali Putra. Groups of Sri Lankan pilgrims visit India with no visa fees while some of the Buddha sites in Gujarat are yet to be discovered by most Sri Lankans, he added.

Mr. Sinha also noted that there are 154 flights a week from the Bandaranaike International Airport to eight destinations in India but stressed that connectivity through air and sea should also increase between the two countries. Taking a train from Colombo to Talaimannar and then a ferry from Talaimannar to Rameswaram in India (which was possible many decades back) is one of the cheapest ways to travel to and from India. The governments need to work on re-establishing that route. India has so much to offer to its visitors from mountains to beaches, he stated.

India's Secretary of Tourism Shri Vinod Zutshi said that there is an interest in Buddhist tourism in India. Sri Lanka is one of the top 10 countries for tourism coming into India where tourism in India is on the upbeat. From January to May this year there was a 7 per cent increase on tourists arriving to India from Sri Lanka. He said 6.68 per cent of the GDP is though tourism in India while adding that tourism is a major part for economic growth of a country. India is spending a lot on Infrastructure development and there is growth in eco-tourism as well as wildlife tourism.

Medical and religious tourism is growing well in India, he noted.