Taj Mahal, the monument of love, is fast losing sheen to Indian tourists, thanks to the greater exposure of Indians to exotic locations overseas. Instead, the monument is catching the fancy of foreign tourists in a big way. As a result, the inflow of foreign tourists to Taj Mahal has gone up by a whopping 196% over the last five years and this has led to a robust 788% growth in revenue from foreign visitors.
The figures are startling when compared to the 63% jump in number of Indian tourists visiting the monument and a mere 23% growth in revenue from Indian visitors during the same period.
According to figures released by the Ministry of Tourism, while the number of foreigners visiting the monument has gone up from 1,93,827 in 2002-03 to 5,73,577 in 2007-08, the revenue has jumped from $2,62,335 in 2002-03 to $23,28,540. On the contrary, number of Indians visiting the Taj Mahal has gone up to 27,42,041 during the last fiscal vis-?-vis 16,84,764 in 2002-03 and consequently the revenue from the same has gone up from Rs 5.2 crore in 2002-03 to Rs 6.44 crore in 2007-08.
“The eye-popping growth in revenue from foreign visitors vis-?-vis India tourists is largely because of the fact that entry charges for an Indian visitor is as low as Rs 10 whereas the same for foreign tourist is 25 times more at Rs 250, or over $6 per person,” say an official in the Ministry of Tourism.
According to an industry expert, the greater exposure of Indians to the outer world is another reason for the relatively slow growth in number of domestic visitors to the monument. ”Lately, the foreign embassies have been aggressive in terms of marketing their countries as major tourists’ destinations. They have been conducting seminars to educate travel agents as well as give incentives to them to draw more people to their respective countries and this is being reflected in an increase in outbound tourism,” he says, adding that even television has been playing a significant role to expose people to exotic locations outside India.
“Foreigners have always been interested in historical places and lately even Indian government has become slightly more proactive in promoting India as a tourist destination. Tan Mahal, a marvel of beauty, certainly tops the list of must-see destination in India and this has resulted in a huge inflow of foreigners to the monument,” says the official.
“Moreover, the extremely hot temperature in this part of the country generally keeps Indians away from the place for over nine months of a year as they prefer to cool themselves in the beaches of Kerala and Goa,” he adds.
