Tourists including foreigners continued to face inconvenience at UNESCO World Heritage site Khajuraho for the second day on Thursday due to indefinite strike by local traders, tourist guides and travel agents.
The protestors’ main demands include a better air, rail and road connectivity to Khajuraho and a better tourism infrastructure to see an increase in the number foreign tourists, which, as they said, has been dwindling for years.
The markets wore a deserted look as shops were closed. Tourist guides refrained from assisting tourists and travel agents didn’t provide vehicles to them resulting in a lot of inconvenience to tourists.
Members of traders association, Khajuraho Hotel Association, Tourist Guide Association, Travels association, Taxi Association, Auto driver association, Jain youth association and political workers staged a dharna near western group of temples on Thursday again.
As per Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) data, the number of foreign tourists who visited Khajuraho stood at 66035 in the year 2016 which came down to 60759 in 2018. The trend of decrease in number of foreign tourists continues this year too.
However, as per the data, the number of domestic tourists to Khajuraho increased from 279390 in 2016 to 361594 in 2018.
{{/usCountry}}However, as per the data, the number of domestic tourists to Khajuraho increased from 279390 in 2016 to 361594 in 2018.
{{/usCountry}}Rashid Khan, a travel agent said, “Indefinite strike is our last resort to save Khajuraho tourism. There has been significant drop in foreign tourists’ footfalls. Our 80% business depends on the foreign tourists only. A good number of domestic tourists use their own conveyance to visit the site.”
He said, earlier, there were three different airline flights daily to Khajuraho from Delhi, Agara, Varanasi but now only Air India flight was bringing the tourists, that too three days a week, from Delhi and Varanasi. Even train connectivity was not good, hence tourists who visited Agra preferred to visit Rajasthan.
A social activist Sachin Tamrakar said both the central and state governments neglected Khajuraho tourism. Anshu Awasthi, vice-president of Khajuraho Guides Association said, “We will continue our agitation till our demands are met.”
Sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Khajuraho Swapnil Wankhede said collector, Chhatarpur has taken cognizance of the strike and he has conveyed their concern to higher authorities. The protestors should withdraw their agitation.
Head of ASI, Bhopal circle Bhuvan Vikram said, “The ASI’s main work is preservation and looking after monuments and facilitate tickets to tourists. We don’t see any problem on the part of tourists in viewing the monuments.”