Uttarakhand to soon roll out ‘Gotra Tourism’ packages

The Uttarakhand Government is planning to introduce ‘gotra (clan) tourism’ in the state in a bid to promote domestic tourism. Referring to this plan, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that the plan is to encourage tourists to visit the region to update their family records and also visit places that are associated with sages after whom the gotras were actually named.
As per people’s belief, the saptarishis, i.e., the seven sages—Kashyap, Vashishtha, Atri, Gautam, Vishwamitra, Jamadagni and Bharadwaj, were responsible for originating of gotras. These sages are even believed to have spent days meditating in the Dev Bhoomi of the Uttarakhand Hills. The chief minister informed that efforts will be made to develop those sites where the seven sages meditated, so that those areas are developed into tourist hotspots. Also, logos will be created for each gotra to enable people associate with their gotras without any hassle. Tourism secretary Dilip Jawalkar, referring to this development, said that might go ahead and put all details of family genealogies online, which will motivate people to come to Uttarakhand to know about their family lineage and also update it on a frequent basis. He also stated that officials are interacting with research scholars, priests to trace the history of saints from whom the major gotras have evolved. However, he also pointed out that the plan is still in its primary phase and the basic homework still needs to be done.
To promote tourism, various aspects like adventure, honeymoon, leisure, cultural, religious, business, rural tourism, and many more have been targeted, but ‘gotra tourism’ will be launched for the first time in Uttarakhand. It is expected that once this plan is rolled out, it will attract more and more tourists in this region.