India’s northern state is ramping up efforts to draw more international visitors with a variety of offerings such as wellness, adventure, home stays, and more
The northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, mainly popular for being home of religious destinations like Haridwar and Rishikesh – known as the yoga capital of the World – is now stepping up to promote its lesser-known tourism experiences, with development of infrastructure and community participation as an integral part of the state’s strategy.
The government of Uttarakhand introduced its new tourism policy last year which aims to position the state as a diversified tourist destination, offering a mix of products like heritage, religion, nature, wildlife, wellness tourism, and more. The focus of the policy, which will be effective for seven years, is to create new tourism circuits and destinations.
Sachin Kurve, secretary of tourism and CEO of Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB), said: “Our government has made it a priority to promote lesser-known hidden treasures within the state as we are looking to reduce congestion in heavily visited tourist destinations. We want to promote tourism in remote locations and introduce new tourism experiences throughout the state. We are actively developing new destinations such as Uttarkashi, Champawat, New Tehri and Pithoragarh to offer diverse tourism activities.”
As per the targets of the Uttarakhand Tourism Policy, the sector is expected to contribute US$10 billion to the state’s economy annually by 2030. Manish Goyal, founder, Stotrak Hospitality, said: “The boom that domestic tourism has witnessed has helped to grow tourist arrivals in Uttarakhand too. This year has started on a positive note for us with demand being generated from segments like FITs, group travel and MICE. Under the policy made for tourism investment, subsidies are being offered by the government to private players investing in unexplored places and segments like heli-tourism, caravan tourism, adventure tourism and operators of electric vehicles for transportation. This push will help in promoting tourism activities, and subsequently create new employment opportunities.”
Uttarakhand is looking to take up minimum 100 public private partnership (PPP) projects before 2030. In fact, the state government has already signed several memoranda of understanding with a number of hospitality players in the country.
In 2023, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts (MHRIL) signed an MoU with the government of Uttarakhand to invest 10 billion rupees (US$119.69 million) and build four to five large marquee resorts over the next few years in the state. This is the biggest investment by MHRIL announced in any state in India. Efcee Hotels, the hotel investment arm of the Leela Group of Companies, is also developing four hotels in the state.
In order to promote the state for wellness tourism, Uttarakhand has also signed an MoU with Atmantan Wellness Centre to set up a 100-150-room property. Nikhil Kapur, co-founder and director, Atmantan Wellness Centre, said that considering the incredible landscape and cultural richness of Uttarakhand, the state is positioned perfectly for travellers seeking wellness experiences.
The state aims to encourage private sector involvement in developing adventure tourism activities too. These activities include water sports, white water rafting, aero sports, paragliding, parasailing, hot air ballooning, mountain biking, trekking, mountaineering, rock climbing, bungee jumping, skiing, snowboarding, and so on. Uttarakhand Tourism organised a five-day long paragliding acrobatic event – one-of-its-kind event in India – at Tehri Lake in November last year. The event attracted 178 paragliders from 27 countries.
The Uttarakhand government is in pursuit of developing skiing resorts in three places including Auli, Munsiyari and Dayara Bugyal at an expected investment of around US$100 million.
“Uttarakhand can increase the average length of stay of tourists in the state to four to five days by creating new tourism circuits and promoting new tourist experiences. Presently, the average length of stay of tourists in the state is about two to three days. Also, considering the fragile ecosystem of the state, sustainable development of tourism needs to be prioritised,” said Arun Anand, managing director, Midtown Travels.
In order to build host capacity in untapped destinations, UTDB joined hands with Airbnb earlier this year. The partnership will focus on onboarding local home stays onto the Airbnb platform. Airbnb will conduct workshops in the identified pilot destinations to train ‘model hosts’ on setting up their profiles, optimising listing content, and capturing attractive photographs to entice travellers. Through the focus on home stays, the state government is looking to offer employment opportunities to local communities and unveil new tourist spots for travellers.
On the other hand, the state government is working towards connecting the two popular tourist destinations – Dehradun and Mussoorie – by India’s longest passenger aerial ropeway measuring 5,500m in the coming years. This ropeway will cut travel time between the two cities from 1.5 hours to just 15 minutes. Featuring 10-seater diamond cabins, it will accommodate 1,300 passengers per hour in each direction.
As per the latest statistics available with UTDB, the state welcomed 20 million domestic tourists in 2021 while a meagre 15,410 international tourists visited the state in the same year.
