For all the domestic as well as foreign tourists, this is one heck of a monument. I have met travelers who have dreamt of visiting this monument since their childhood and made travel to India. Their happiness and joy on their faces is an indication of the effect it has on them. However, there is also an effect (or side-effect) of overpopulation at this monument. Just like the Royal Palace in Bangkok, this monument is flocked by 40-50,000 tourists daily. This number is huge and you can only imagine now why there are hardly any pictures without people in the background.
Overpopulation at this tourist marvel has spoiled the visit for a lot of tourists because they have to scramble really early in the morning to get pictures with only a few people in the background instead of a few hundred ones. And they do not even have to struggle for getting pictures in good locations.
We can’t really blame the tourists too as its a huge complex and so admirably stunning that people are held in awe of the beauty and magnificent designs of this UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In order to control the tourist flow, there is a new rule in place. Earlier tourists could visit the monument and stay back all day long. Now the time has been reduced to just 3 hours. If you exceed 3 hours, you will pay an amount equivalent to your ticket again at the exit gate. There are 5 exit points to the monument and will help tourists make a quick exit if their time is up. This will help control the “crowd” that accumulates there.
To combat the problems of overtourism, several measures have been implemented in the recent past. In December 2018, the price to visit the monument was racked up from Rs50 to 250 for Indian visitors. Reports also stated that the Taj Mahal would set a cap of 40,000 visitors per day.
As tourism has become a mainstay in our current lives and many people have started traveling regularly on weekends than earlier traveling once in few months has caused a severe issue of over tourism in a lot of tourist places. This has been seen around the world where action has been taken to preserve the monument and also keep tourists at bay. The beautiful Maya Bay in Thailand was closed to tourists in 2018 and has not opened til now just because of this reason and also to preserve the natural beauty from damage. In the future, we will see a lot of similar actions being taken around the world. Till then Cheers and Happy Travels.