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`Foreign visitors to Agra up by 139 p.c.'

LUCKNOW, MARCH 6. Agra's mausoleum of love has proved to be a monument of big business for U.P.'s tourism industry.

With the 350th anniversary of the Taj Mahal running, foreign tourist flow to the city has gone up by 139 per cent and is growing.

"This boom in tourism has been witnessed after 22 years," Minister for Tourism Kokab Hamid said here today.

The festival has boosted tourist flow to the state as a whole with an overall increase of 35 per cent, with the `City of Ghats' Varanasi seeing an increase of 40 per cent tourists, Mr. Hamid said. The State is poised to see further increase in the tourists in the next two months, though the Agra Festival is slated for an official closure in April for which bookings have been completed, Mr. Hamid said.

The major boost for tourism was the Supreme Court permission granting night viewing of the Mughal monument after a gap of 20 years.

The State Government provided a special fund of Rs. 10 crores for advertisements in international media besides holding road shows and talk shows for reviving interest in Agra and Taj Mahal, he added.

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