In the year 2019-20, 19 lakh domestic and 53 thousand foreign tourists had visited the 15 ticketed monuments under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in the state. However, this year, (up to January 31, 2021), just 6 lakh Indian and 89 foreign tourists have come to visit these monuments.
They include the Sanchi Stupas and the Khajuraho Group of Temples – both UNESCO World Heritage Sites – and the palaces and buildings at Mandu, the Gwalior Fort, Udaygiri Caves, Bhojshala (Dhar district) and the Burhanpur Fort.
The ASI-protected monuments were closed to visitors from March 24 to July 5, 2020. They were reopened from July 6, 2020.
But even accounting for the closure of the monuments for around three months last year, the drop is huge. In 2019-20, on an average, around 1.63 lakh tourists visited these monuments every month. However, in the seven months (July 2020–January 2021) since the reopening of the monuments, the average number of monthly visitors was just 86,000 – a drop of almost 50%. The situation was even worse in the case of foreign tourists, whose monthly average fell from 4,432 to just 12.
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