During the SAARC summit, the member countries had decided to develop and promote tourism among member countries. Now, India has decided to develop Buddhism as a big time spiritual tourism in the region. For this, the government of India has sought cooperation from the other member countries of the region.

The Ministry of Tourism has planned a common promotional program to develop the sites linked with Buddhist destinations. As a part of the program, the ministry has further decided to create coordination among the Buddhist destinations in Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh with Indian Buddhist sites.

Earlier, a study conduct on the need for developing Buddhist destinations in India had revealed that the tourist visits would go up by 400 per cent in India. Moreover, India would earn more than Rs 4700 crore if the sites were renovated with a facility of better connectivity among those sites.

Later, the ministry launched a major tourist campaign ‘Come To India - Walk With The Buddha’ in the South Asian region as well as in domestic market too to promote the Buddhist tourism. For this purpose, the government of India has also released Rs 57 crore. The funds would be helpful for the development of tourism infrastructure in 14 Buddhist sites, where the tourists prefer to visit.

According to the report, Japan has offered for the assistance of Rs 299 crore to renovate Ajanta Ellora caves where people visit to see famous Buddhist paintings and artwork. Similar sites such as Sarnath, Kushinagar, Kapilavastu, Shravasti and Sankisa will be developed in the promotional campaign.

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