AGRA: A popular US-based travel guide, in its annual list of places 'not to visit', has issued an advisory to its over 1.14 million followers to avoid the
Taj Mahal in 2018.
Fodor's Travel has made the recommendation based on media reports about the monument's "facelift" through mud-pack therapy.
Fodor's Travel, which released its first-ever guide for American travellers in 1937, says on its website that "unless your dream Taj Mahal visit involves being photographed standing in front of a mudcaked and scaffolded dome, maybe give it until 2019 at the earliest". Meanwhile,
ASI officials said that. during the mudpack process, one side of the monument will always be uncovered for visitors.
Reacting to the advisory, Rajiv Tiwari, president of the
Federation of Travel Association of Agra, said, "Such an advisory, that too from a top US-based travel guidebook publisher, will have an impact on the local tourism industry. People who have kept Taj Mahal somewhere on top of their wishlist will think twice before visiting the monument.
