Khajuraho is top favourite of tourists

THE KHAJURAHO group of temples, famous for their erotic sculptures built by the Chandela rulers in the 10th century, remained the preferred destination for foreign tourists visiting Madhya Pradesh.

THE KHAJURAHO group of temples, famous for their erotic sculptures built by the Chandela rulers in the 10th century, remained the preferred destination for foreign tourists visiting Madhya Pradesh.

HT Image

Of more than 82,000 foreign tourists from 94 countries who visited Khajuraho, the temple town of Orchha and Panna National Park in Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh in 2005, 74,787 visited Khajuraho.

French tourists totalling 9173 remained the biggest group visiting Khajuraho, followed by Americans 8158 and British 6848. Tourists from Italy, Spain, Korea, Japan, Germany, Holland, Canada, Australia, Israel, China and South Africa also visited Khajuraho, said Chhatarpur Range Inspector General of Police Varun Kapur.

The temple town of Orchha in neighbouring Tikamgarh district attracted 4433 foreigners from 40 countries, while only 2912 foreigners visited Panna National Park. French tourists, numbering 455, dominated the foreign tourists visiting Orchha.

However, Australians numbering 930, constituted the biggest group among foreign tourists visiting the Panna National Park spread over 593 sq km.

Kapur said Tourism Police Centre would be set up at Khajuraho soon for the benefit of tourists. About 25 police officials, having working knowledge in foreign languages, will be posted there.

Along with information material, photographs of guides, taxi drivers, travel agents, hoteliers and rickshaw-pullers would be made available at the centre so that the tourists could identify them in the event of any attempt of cheating or any untoward incident, Kapur added.