World tourism day fails to bring cheer to tourism sector in Agra

By Brij Khandelwal

Agra September 27 (IANS) A new tourist season beginning World Tourism Day on Thursday, has brought little cheer to the tourism sector in the Taj city.

Senior tourism industry leaders said “there was nothing much to look forward to a number of our demands that could spurt the growth in this vital sector have been rejected or cold-storaged.”

The travel trade laments lack of air connectivity to Agra. “Smaller cities have regular flights but not India’s tourist destination number one,” says Anil Sharma, spearheading a movement for international airport at Agra, for the past three years. “We are now planning a Satyagrah on this issue from October 2,” Sharma added.

The hotel industry has been affected by the GST and the falling graph of visitors staying overnight in Agra. The Supreme Court is seized of crucial issues like declaring Agra a heritage city and imposing restrictions on industrial development. “This has created an uncertainty, as hotels can neither expand nor open new units in the city because of the ad hoc moratorium on industries,” says Agra Development Foundation secretary KC Jain.

“The city’s growth is stunted.  This is because of the total lack of forward planning, there is neither the will nor any major policy push being contemplated by the state government, which had made many promises at the time of elections. The UP tourism department looks hardly prepared to create the kind of ambience required to encash the boom in the industry," according to senior tourism industry leader Surendra Sharma, founder of the Agra Hotels and Restaurants Association.

Tourism organisations in Agra on Thursday organised the ritual welcome of tourists at the railway station and at different hotels. But there was little else to commemorate the day and no sign of activity to make the city any more "tourist-friendly".

Agra is one of India's top tourist destinations. Yet, it lacks basic infrastructure, and thus cannot take advantage of the interest generated in India and its tourist attractions, Sharma added. "The (previous) Mayawati government did nothing, and we had great hopes from the young Akhilesh Yadav (the former chief minister), while the Yogi Aditya Nath government seems more interested in Mathura and Vrindavan to appease Hindu sentiments than focus on Agra, the city of many glorious Mughal monuments" said Shravan Kumar Singh, vice president of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society, talking of how successive chief ministers had let the city down.

"We thought the scenario would change for the better, we expected some action on our long list of demands. So far, however, there is nothing to indicate that the state government is treating Agra as a priority," Anil Sharma of the Civil Society Movement, lamented.

Leaders in the tourism and hospitality industry in the city said that there was a lack of vision and of will, in the political leadership of the state. "Even with three world heritage monuments, Agra has not been able to significantly increase the number of visitors; and those who visit often make brief trips. Neither the state nor the central government seems interested in promoting Agra. The Yamuna Expressway has made it easier for tourists to return the same day, to Delhi. The hotel industry in Agra has little to look forward to in the next tourist season," Rakesh Chauhan, president of the Agra Hotels and Restuarants Association, told IANS.

The president of the National Chamber of Industries and Commerce, Rajiv Tiwari, also a senior tourism industry leader, said tourism sector needs big initiatives. The outlook for the coming season is bleak, with the general slowdown.  The situation now is no different from 1982, when we had presented a memorandum to the central government."

"What could be more amazing than the fact that there are no flights and no air connectivity with Agra? Our demand for a decent civil airport in Agra has been cold-storaged. We had asked for the extension of the Metro rail to Agra. Even this was not granted.

The politicians have no commitment or clarity on most issues. They just grab land and make money," said a frustrated Chauhan, who pointed out that smaller cities like Mysore had an airport and were more easily accessible to tourists.

The UP tourism department has still to evolve a tourism policy for the state. Agra gets a lot of money from various agencies, but where it goes no one knows. There should be a proper mechanism for monitoring, Chauhan said.

Tourism bodies have hardly done anything to promote lesser known monuments in and around Agra. "The result is that most tourists visit the Taj Mahal and return the same evening. We need  a comprehensive action plan for tourism development for the whole Braj region that includes Mathura, Vrindavan, Bateshwar, and several important sites of religious importance,” adds Sandeep Arora, a hotelier of Taj Ganj.

"We have to do a lot of work on the cultural promotion work, to make sure that tourists extend their stay in Agra. Only then will the city gain from tourism," Yashwant of the Kalakriti auditorium that daily runs the popular  90 minute programme Mohabbat the Taj, said.