Is Agra city in Uttar Pradesh losing its charm?

We know that Agra is a very popular tourism place not only in India but throughout the world. There are many tourists who visit to this place everywhere but from the last few months, the tourism of the city is affected in the city. It is observed that Agra city is loosing its charm. There are many reasons behind this issue. Spurt in summer temperatures due to climate change, concerns of safety and lack of basic amenities are perhaps taking away the charm of Agra's prime tourism centre Taj Mahal, known often as the Seven wonders in the world in the tourism circles, if the steady fall in tourist arrivals since the start of the current decade is any indication. Taj Mahal, Agra's most popular tourism spot known for its beauty, used to be one of the rare destinations in the Uttar Pradesh that lured tourists from the domestic as well as foreign sectors in the season of summer but last summer was a disappointment due to the inhospitable heat. The Tourism Department's programmes for monsoon tourism this year also met with considerable failure as heavy rains that lashed the State in the first week of August wreaked havoc in Agra town as well as on the access routes to the destination which left many tourists stranded in the Agra resort for days. However, the most important factor that is affecting Agra's tourism operations negatively is perhaps the law and order problems, a new trend in the region. Over 30 cases of attacks by local people on both domestic and foreign tourists in Agra city and around have been reported during the past one year alone. "All this is affecting tourism of Uttar Pradesh, the city of Nawabs. "Rains this year have been a big factor but that was unstoppable and accidental. Even otherwise, there is a perceptible tendency among the travelers to exempt Taj Mahal from their itinerary. As many as 4,26,61 travelers including 8,972 foreign tourists had visited Agra during the season of 2010-11, according to official statistics. This number fell to just over 3,84,000 in the 2011-12 season. The arrivals dropped to 1,49,425 in the first quarter of the current year, suggesting that the fall in arrivals is not just accidental. Agra used to see over 2,000 tourists flowing in per day in the peak of summer but this dropped to less than 800 last summer. The overall fall in arrivals during the summer months was 40 percent, according to tourism circles. The main reason for this was reportedly the extraordinarily high temperatures witnessed at the otherwise cool place for tourists near Yamuna. "There is no escaping the fact that the numbers are coming down every passing year.

There has been a 20 percent fall in arrivals in the past three years and there is no sign of the business picking up though the season has begun. In financial terms, the drop could be as big as 40 percent. However, the biggest threat to tourism business in Agra presently is the frequent attacks on travelers from the part of the local residents. Police officials secretly admit this fact but express inability to stop such incidents totally in the absence of sufficient personnel. A minimum of 30 such incidents have been reported in Agra city in the past one year. "It is a fact that tourism has led to a huge rise in prices. Most restaurants are now off limits for the ordinary Agra natives, subsisting mainly on industrial and handicrafts jobs. This could be creating an anti-tourist sentiment in the people. But the problem is that they would be worse off if tourism business collapses," said a Department of Tourism official. Police officials say that they do not have enough personnel to engage on tourism duty, especially in places like Dudhwa and Lucknow, outside Agra town, which see heavy tourist presence in the season. Most of the attacks against tourists are being reported from places like this. The other factors that create an aversion among travelers to Agra are the ever-increasing room rent, lack of clean budget restaurants that serve hygienic food, problems of vehicle parking and lack of good public comfort stations. Hope that the city will again gains its charm in the coming months.