Desicritics Comments on Why Foreigners Pay More For Visiting Indian Monuments?

Comment by cheap airline tickets cheap last minute

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 08:53:09 EST

You are a useful informative blog on Airlines and Airfares topic. I was looking for some cheap airline tickets cheap last minute and I came to your blog. Thanks for all the information.

Comment by dave

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 05:58:06 EDT

Hi Deepa, You compare India's tourist sites to other western countries and say hey look India is cheap right? But you fail to point out that western countries do not discriminate based on skin color or nationality. The ROM museum here in Toronto, offers free Fridays afternoon for everyone, they also give out many free summer ticket to students. But it would outrageous to charge visitor to the city more then TEN TIMES the admission price as they do in India. So i would have to say, just as the referring to foreigners are 'firanges', the Indian two tier price system is bigoted and should be abolished immediately. Don't forget some foreigners maybe rich but some maybe 'budget travelers' student etc. Just as many Indians are rich and poor etc. Should R tata only pay 5 Rs? The problem as it is now is that Indians are destroying the heritage site by graffiti and other ways. I was in Gingee fort and the guards were very interested in me and checking my $10 ticket. I pointed out to him that the 5 Rs Indian tourists were at the top carving their initial into the rock. He just laughed as if this was their Bharat right to do so! So the prices should be raise to protect the monuments from rowdy Indians. Most of the sites are also corrupt, many times i have paid just a little baksheesh and enter through the side door. Also some hotels are allowed to open inside the sites. Have a look at my blog on Gingee Fort has so photos of the damage done. http://www.mysecretplanet.com/Singee-Fort.html

Comment by qchwgNhomDaxLraudQW

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 22:45:28 EST

IRP16P

Comment by temporal

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 02:12:00 EST

good for you ss my fellow insisted on driving me to the souvenir shops and saree shops afterwards while i had more on my .... er.....mind toilets are not easy to come by ;)

Comment by smallsquirrel

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 23:38:27 EST

sm... good point... the people of agra gain *nothing* which is sad because I have never seen a filthier city in my life. and when I went to the taj, the guy who was pulling my rick at the approach was drunk as hell... I was pregnant and already nauseated... the smell of urine permeating the approach combined with this guy's erratic "driving"... made me want to go home immediately.

Comment by sm

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 16:05:49 EST

Deepa, you've made a compelling case for the differential pricing, even though it is something that irks me whenever I go to India. Even though I am an Indian citizen, for the crime of living in another country, I get charged triple, quadruple, and more, not only for tourist sites, but for hotels, airline tickets, and everything else. To me this comes across as nothing more than begging, and a result of low self-respect on the Indians' behalf -- oh, we're so poor, and any foreigner is by definition much richer than us, and so should be gouged. Like many other well-intentioned policies, I don't think this is helping the really poor. On my visits to the Taj, most of the Indian visitors have been middle- to upper middle class. To help the poorer people also enjoy these sights, the government can offer one day a week or month of free admission, as is done for many museums in the U.S., which is certainly not a socialist or poor country. But what I really wanted to say was that if the government of India wants to generate more tourist revenues from places like the Taj, they should focus on making the approach and the whole city more clean and less disorganized. However beautiful the Taj Mahal might be, by the time you've driven through the streets of Agra and walked up to it for the last bit, you are in no frame of mind to enjoy its beauty. Since this is *the* number one toutist destination that is heavily promoted by the government, and one that almost every foreign visitor is likely to visit, it only makes sense to give a good impression to visitors.

Comment by temporal

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 14:06:39 EST

deeps: thanks for putting this in perspective:)