Tamil Nadu, the Heritage Capital of India - Mamallapuram near Chennai had more foreign visitors than the famous Taj Mahal!!
Posted on: 30/Sep/2022 9:54:53 AM
Who said in India the Taj Mahal at Agra only attracts many foreigners?
The surprising piece of information is that as per the data from the government the monuments in Mahabalipuram near Chennai were more popular amongst the foreign visitors than even Taj Mahal at Agra near New Delhi.
The ministry of tourism, GOI, has released the statistics about the visitors to the ticketed monuments for 2021-22 and it was very clear that 144984 foreigners visited the Mamallapuram group monuments but just 38922 foreigners visited the Taj Mahal. It is known that the ticketed monuments have been maintained by ASI or Archeological Survey of India.
In the state of TN, 5 monuments that have attracted the foreign visitors more are monuments in Mamallapuram, tiger head rock cut temple in Saluvankuppam, Gingee Fort, Fort Museum at Thirumayam & rock cut Jain Temple at Sittanavasal. It is learnt that Mamallapuram had 45.5% share of visitors whereas Taj mahal had just 12.21% share of visitors.
The reason why Mamallapuram monuments had more foreign visitors than Taj Mahal was due to the changes in travel pattern and lack of access to the monuments due to Coronavirus pandemic that affected the foreign arrivals to India especially to northern parts. Mostly, tourists from Europe and USA visit Taj Mahal but during the Coronavirus pandemic the tourist flow did not resume till much later in 2021-22.
The tourism department of Tn is very happy now. Mr. Chandra Mohan, tourist secretary pointed out that TN has become the heritage capital of entire India now. He added that Mamallapuram has not only become the most visited place by the foreigners but it has also left others behind.
He concluded that the visitors` experience in TN would be improved and a massive project would be taken up to make Mamallapuram on par with the world standards.
