Visit Golden Maharashtra, a tourism initiative conceived by Maharashtra Economic Development Council (MEDC) and supported by Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and Government of Maharashtra to showcase Maharashtra as a global tourism destination on the 50th anniversary of the state, will conduct a special promotion programme for Pandharpur Yatra.
Pandharpur Yatra, the world’s largest religious padyatra, comprises of over 1 million pilgrims travelling for 21 days to Vithoba temple by foot. Numerous palkhis from various towns and villages join the main palkhi that starts from Sant Tukaram Temple at Dehu in Pune district. The yatra culminates at the Vithoba temple on Ashadi Ekadasi, which falls on July 21, this year.
Visit Golden Maharashtra, mandated with promoting Maharashtra as a global tourism powerhouse and facilitating various types of tourism and various locations, will hard promote the Pandharpur Yatra as part of the initiative. “Pandharpur Yatra is one of the greatest visual spectacles of the world. Through a series of promotional activities, Visit Golden Maharashtra will position the yatra and showcase the significance and relevance of this phenomenon,” says Vinod Gupta, Vice President - International, MEDC.
As part of the special promotion, Visit Golden Maharashtra will provide information and logistics support, market it and facilitate private players to introduce special packages. “Besides traditional marketing tools, new age tools like Facebook and Twitter will be used to promote Yatra,” adds Gupta.
“Besides being the world’s single largest religious padyatra, it holds importance to a very large section of the society. Its potential within the religious tourism segment is vast.”
“Maharashtra is a land abundant in natural glory. Besides scenic beaches on the konkan coast, the towering Sahyadri ranges, wildlife reserves at Tadoba and Pench, the state also offers potential for harnessing unexplored segments like adventure tourism, eco-tourism, wine tourism and bollywood tourism,” he adds.
Launched in April 2010 by Dr. Vijaykumar Gavit, Minister for Tourism, Shri Vithal Kamat, President, Maharashtra Economic Development Council (MEDC), Shri Anand Kulkarni, Principal Secretary, Department of Tourism, Shri Avinash Dhakne, Managing Director, MTDC, trade body chairpersons, industry captains and other dignitaries, Visit Golden Maharashtra has conducted an industry conference to chart strategies for tourism growth of Maharashtra. The initiative proposes to hold year long activities to showcase Maharashtra to rest of the globe and initiate policy measures to drive tourism growth.
Currently, it is in the process of drawing up a white paper on tourism. It is scheduled to be published and presented to the Chief Minister in July. Various other initiatives have been lined up and will be held across the various parts of the State of Maharashtra. “Visit Golden Maharashtra is one of the most ambitious tourism initiatives of the state and will herald this golden state to a golden era,” concludes Vinod Gupta.