Bhopal: Foreign tourists join Khajuraho protest

Bhopal: The Khajuraho group of temples in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhatarpur district, known worldwide for their intricately crafted erotic sculptures, on Saturday hogged international limelight for a different reason.

In a rare sight, foreign tourists were seen joining the locals to observe the   bandh demanding better air and rail connectivity to the site, considered a hot tourist destination.

Tourists from Europe, America and even from some African countries were seen sitting with locals associated with the local tourism industry to protest the poor rail and air connectivity, besides road communication to the site which boasts of the ninth century architectural marvel.

“The tourism industry in Khajuraho has taken a hit owing to poor air and rail connectivity to the area. The flow of foreign as well as domestic tourists has suffered due to this”, Mr Niraj Gupta, managing director of Travel Time, a local travel agency, told this newspaper.

The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that the number of foreign tourists visiting the site has declined by around 40 per cent in the last seven years due to this.

According to an official figure, the number of foreign tourists visiting Khajuraho came down from 97,356 in 2011 to 60,758 in 2018.

This has resulted in significant reduction in occupancy in hotels in Khajuraho.

“The occupancy in hotels has come down to 30 percent making the hospitality industry almost unviable”, Mr Shankar Tiwari, associated with hospitality industry in the area said.

There are around 30 hotels including five 5-star ones.

If corrective measures are not undertaken urgently, Khajuraho would face the prospect of disappearing in the tourism map of world, he apprehended.

Currently, the Delhi-Varanasi-Agra-Khajuraho Air India flight operates thrice a week.

The local tourism industry has demanded rescheduleing the flight to make it Delhi-Varanasi-Khajuraho and operate it daily.