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Seeking to boost tourist inflow and tourism revenue, the Uttar Pradesh government is keen to promote heritage tourism across the state.
This would entail converting historical forts, havelis and palaces scattered across Uttar Pradesh into hospitality spots or heritage hotels.
Uttar Pradesh is home to a number of erstwhile princely estates with their descendants in possession of such heritage properties spread over hundreds of acres.
State Tourism Director-General Amrit Abhijat here on Tuesday held a meeting with owners of such heritage properties to discuss the way forward.
He said heritage property owners were enthusiastic about the prospects of developing their edifices into hotels.
Some enterprising heritage property owners have already converted them into hotels out of their own effort. However, the government wants to institutionalise the process for deriving maximum dividend on tourism front.
The tourism department has decided to formalise a regular coordination and dialogue process with heritage property owners to address their grievances and speedily take-up of their proposals for clearance.
The categorisation of heritage hotels is facilitated by the Centre, which segments them according to the amenities provided thereof. The state is reaching out to budding entrepreneurs with assurance of faster vetting and forwarding of their proposals to the Centre.
The meeting was attended by Uttar Pradesh Tourism Director Shashank, Uttar Pradesh Heritage Hotel Association Vice-President Aridaman Singh and secretary Deependra Singh, among others.
