Agra tourism soars with increase in foreign flights
Vishal Sharma
New Delhi/ Agra For a town where the concept of developing an international airport is still on the drawing board and where regular flights have become a rarity, Agra has been especially fortunate.
Over the last eight months, the city has seen 110 international chartered flights, each carrying a load of foreign tourists coming directly from their home country, landing at its airport. This has proved to be a boon for its tourism industry which is usually at its lowest during the summers.
According to Prahlad Agarwal, convenor, Agra Foreign Tourist Traders and Exporters Association, the arrival of such a large number of international charters in Agra during the past eight months had had a great influence on the tourism business of the town, and if such direct arrivals of international charters continued, the present domestic airport could be granted the status of an international airport.
He also said that in such a case there will not be a need for the UP government to build a new airport.
Agarwal said that the tourists arriving on direct charter flights were good spenders. While the hotel industry of the town got a substantial business from them, it was the handicraft industry that proved to be the major beneficiary.
According to a conservative estimate, he said, craftsmen of Agra received business worth Rs 100 crore-Rs150 crore in the past fiscal year from foreign tourists.
He indicated that before October 2005, there was an informal ban on international charters landing at the Agra domestic airport and the last international charter had landed in Agra back in 1997.
“But after the ban ended in October last year, there had been a rush among the private tour operators to bring direct charter flights to Agra, and 80 per cent of all charters, which landed in Agra since last year, were international, arriving from countries like the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan and France,” he said.
However, according to Agarwal, the absence of a happening night life in Agra was the main reason for tourists’ unwillingness to stay on in the town for longer periods.
To equip the town with facilities to attract tourists, Agra Divisional Commissioner Ashok Kumar had recently indicated that the posh Sadar Bazaar area could be converted into a “Night Bazaar”.
Over the last eight months, the city has seen 110 international chartered flights, each carrying a load of foreign tourists coming directly from their home country, landing at its airport. This has proved to be a boon for its tourism industry which is usually at its lowest during the summers.
According to Prahlad Agarwal, convenor, Agra Foreign Tourist Traders and Exporters Association, the arrival of such a large number of international charters in Agra during the past eight months had had a great influence on the tourism business of the town, and if such direct arrivals of international charters continued, the present domestic airport could be granted the status of an international airport.
He also said that in such a case there will not be a need for the UP government to build a new airport.
Agarwal said that the tourists arriving on direct charter flights were good spenders. While the hotel industry of the town got a substantial business from them, it was the handicraft industry that proved to be the major beneficiary.
According to a conservative estimate, he said, craftsmen of Agra received business worth Rs 100 crore-Rs150 crore in the past fiscal year from foreign tourists.
He indicated that before October 2005, there was an informal ban on international charters landing at the Agra domestic airport and the last international charter had landed in Agra back in 1997.
“But after the ban ended in October last year, there had been a rush among the private tour operators to bring direct charter flights to Agra, and 80 per cent of all charters, which landed in Agra since last year, were international, arriving from countries like the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Russia, Japan and France,” he said.
However, according to Agarwal, the absence of a happening night life in Agra was the main reason for tourists’ unwillingness to stay on in the town for longer periods.
To equip the town with facilities to attract tourists, Agra Divisional Commissioner Ashok Kumar had recently indicated that the posh Sadar Bazaar area could be converted into a “Night Bazaar”.
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