Archive · 21 Aug 2026
Uttar Pradesh and Yamanashi Deepen Buddhist Tourism Partnership
Uttar Pradesh in India and Yamanashi Prefecture in Japan want more people to visit each other’s regions.
They signed an agreement to work together on tourism.
A major focus is helping Japanese visitors explore places linked to the life of Lord Buddha.
These places include Sarnath, Kushinagar and Shravasti.
The two regions will share tourism knowledge and promote destinations together.
They also plan to improve language support, hotels, food, travel routes and wellness experiences.
Uttar Pradesh is building many tourism projects at Buddhist sites.
More visitors have already been coming to these places, including many from other countries.
Uttar Pradesh and Japan’s Yamanashi Prefecture signed a tourism cooperation MoU.
The agreement covers Buddhist, spiritual, wellness and cultural tourism initiatives.
Officials aim to attract more Japanese visitors to Sarnath, Kushinagar, Shravasti and other Buddhist sites.
Uttar Pradesh is implementing 51 Buddhist-destination projects costing more than ₹218 crore.
Visitors to major Buddhist destinations rose from 22.4 lakh in 2022 to over 81.8 lakh in 2025.
- Who
- The Government of Uttar Pradesh and Japan’s Yamanashi Prefecture, with officials and tourism-industry representatives from both regions.
- What
- They signed a Memorandum of Understanding to expand tourism cooperation, especially Buddhist, spiritual, wellness and cultural tourism.
- When
- The interaction and agreement were reported on August 21; visitor figures cited covered 2022 through June 2026.
- Where
- The interaction took place at Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh; the delegation also visited Agra, Braj, Varanasi and Sarnath.
- Why
- The partnership aims to increase tourist movement, attract Japanese visitors to Uttar Pradesh and strengthen cultural and spiritual ties.
- Tourism agreement
- Uttar Pradesh and Yamanashi Prefecture signed an MoU for tourism cooperation.
- Cooperation areas
- The MoU covers knowledge exchange, joint promotion, tourism routes, industry networking and increased tourist movement.
- Buddhist destinations
- The state highlighted Sarnath, Kushinagar, Shravasti, Kapilvastu, Kaushambi and Sankisa.
- Current projects
- Fifty-one tourism projects are being implemented at Buddhist destinations at a cost of more than ₹218 crore.
- Visitor growth
- Visitors to six major Buddhist destinations increased from 22.4 lakh in 2022 to more than 81.8 lakh in 2025.
- Foreign visitors
- Foreign tourists at those destinations rose from 48,000 in 2022 to around 4.43 lakh in 2025.
- 2026 figures
- More than 30.07 lakh tourists, including 2.02 lakh foreign visitors, visited major Buddhist Circuit destinations between January and June 2026.