Ayodhya Surpasses Varanasi: Most Visited Tourist Destinations in Uttar Pradesh

In the first half of this year, Ayodhya has had around 11 crore domestic and foreign visitors, surpassing Varanasi's 4.61 crore visitors. This makes Ayodhya the most popular tourist destination in Uttar Pradesh.

On September 14, the state tourism department announced data on tourists coming to the state in the first six months of the year, pointing out that nearly 33 crore tourists visited the state during this period.

Ayodhya: Most Popular Tourist Place

In the first six months of 2024, a total of 32.98 crore (329.8 million) people visited different parts of Uttar Pradesh, surpassing the 31.86 crore (318.6 million) tourists from the entire year of 2022, according to UP Tourism and Culture Minister Jaiveer Singh.

Of these, 32.87 crore (328.7 million) were domestic tourists, while 10.36 lakh (1.036 million) were international visitors.

The number of visitors increased significantly compared to the first half of last year, which had 19.60 crore (196 million) tourists, marking an increase of over 13 crore (130 million) visitors this year, Singh added.

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Tourist Arrivals in Major UP Cities

As per the data provided by the tourism department, the city of Ayodhya has attracted the highest number of visitors with 10.99 crore (109.9 million) tourists, with only 2,851 international visitors. The majority of the incoming tourists are domestic.

Varanasi was the second most visited place, drawing 4.61 crore (46.1 million) tourists, out of which 1,33,999 (133,999) were international travelers. Other popular destinations like Prayagraj, Mathura, and Agra also saw millions of tourists.

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