The dollar dilemma

 

 

India’s top tour operators are up in arms against the government. They are protesting against the decision to allow foreign tourists in the country to pay entry fees at various monuments in Indian currency. According to the decision, foreign tourists visiting monuments that are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) will now make all entry fee payments in rupees.

Says an outraged Subhash Goyal, chairman of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO): “Tour operators finalise their clients’ itineraries well in advance. Far from helping us, a fee hike would only create problems.”

 According to the decision, each visitor will be charged Rs 250 or about $6 for visiting a World Heritage site such as the Qutab Minar, the Taj Mahal or the Ajanta and Ellora Caves, and Rs 100 for other monuments. This is a change from the previous dual tariff system under which the fee was $5 for World Heritage Sites and $2 for protected monuments such as the Red Fort and Purana Qila.

 For domestic tourists, the entry fee has been fixed at Rs 10 for World Heritage monuments and Rs 5 for others.

 Some operators are outraged that visitors from the Saarc and BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic

Cooperation) countries will be charged only Rs 10 for World Heritage sites and Rs 5 for the other ticketed monuments. “There is a growing traffic of tourists from the BIMSTEC, which has Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal as members. They come here to visit tourist destinations, but they also have very strong cultural roots here. Plus they come in large numbers, so economically it is a blow,” says Praveen Gujral, a small-time tour operator who works out of a small, dingy office in Delhi’s Paharganj.

The Culture Ministry says the step was taken to address the panic in Indian tourism organisations caused by the falling dollar rate, and check the slide in ASI's revenues. At the moment, most players in the tourism industry disagree with this assessment.

There are 3,568 protected monuments in India, of which only 124, including 17 World Heritage ones, invite an entry fee. The total revenue from ticketed monuments in 2006-07 was Rs 60.84 crore – up from Rs 53.91 crore in 2005-06 and Rs 52.9 crore in 2004-05.

While the ASI is reported to earn Rs 35 crore annually from the entry fees, sources claim that its budget for maintenance of monuments and staff expenses exceeds Rs 300 crore. So the question is will the nominal fee hike really help?

India’s entry charges are said to be the lowest in the world. The entry fee is five pounds for Madame Tussaud’s, 11 pounds for the Tower of London, $5 for the Statue of Liberty, 15 Euros for the Eiffel Tower and 12 Euros for the Louvre Museum.