Footfall at India's top monuments still a far cry from pre-pandemic peak

Domestic visitors to top 5 sites 11-33% lower in FY23 than in FY19, foreign arrivals see 50-80% dip

Even as travellers shrugged off the pandemic blues in 2022-23 (FY23), the domestic and foreign tourist footfall at India’s most popular monuments remained substantially low by comparison to the pre-pandemic peak seen in 2018-19 (FY19), according to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) data.

The top five monuments, which attracted the highest number of domestic visitors, were Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Konark’s Sun Temple, Qutub Minar and Agra Fort. Their footfall was still 11-33 per cent lower in FY23 than in FY19.

The top five monuments for foreign tourists — Taj Mahal, Agra Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb and Fatehpur Sikri