Manish Kumar
Post News Network
New Delhi, July 3: The world-famous 13th-century Sun Temple at Konark no longer appears to be holding as high an appeal as earlier for tourists from abroad. The number of registered visits by foreigners to the iconic Black Pagoda has been falling over the last five years.
According to a reply from Archeological Survey of India (ASI) in response to an RTI application filed by Orissa POST, while the number of foreigners visiting the Konark Sun Temple was 9,317 in 2011-12, it declined to 6,570 in 2014-15. Between 2010-11 and 2014-15, the second highest number of foreigners visiting the temple in Puri district was in 2010-11 as the number stood at 8,505.
Experts blamed the decline on a lack of tourist-friendly services like facilitating their stay at the ASI-managed monument that has been declared by UNESCO as one of the heritage sites in Asia.
“A dearth of support system to facilitate the stay of foreigners at Konark has been a key issue in discouraging foreigners’ visits to the site. Limited bus services in the evening, lack of quality accommodation at Konark and little development around tourist sites in nearby areas have led to this decline,” said an official of the state tourism department.
If the tourism potential of nearby beaches like Chandrabhaga and Ramachandi is tapped, there could be added avenues for visitors to Konark, thus encouraging more tourist inflow to the famous site, added the official.
Significantly, the ambitious plan of sound and light work at the temple has also been hanging in the balance due to the scaffolds attached to the temple. The scaffolds are said to be thwarting the prospects of adding more attractions to the famous site, said sources.
Tourism sector experts said the revised fees for visiting the Konark Sun Temple, which had given rise to protests at the site recently, is unlikely to affect the flow of foreign travellers. It could, however, affect local visitors and tour operators, they added.
“When it comes to the revised entry fees of Konark Sun Temple, I do not think it has a direct bearing on foreigners. But some tour operators may change their packages based on the revised ticket prices and remove the site from their list of tourist sites for foreigners,” said Sanghamitra Jena, a leading tour operator.
