Tourism minister for post-sunset activities at heritage sites

Union Tourism Minister K J Alphons today suggested that the culture ministry explore the idea of keeping heritage sites open after the sunset and organising activities there to ensure visitors find them "alive and kicking".
Speaking at a function to launch the ministry's ambitious 'Paryatan Parv' - a 20-day extravaganza to celebrate India's tourism, Alphons said despite India having so much diversity, foreign tourist footfalls were disappointing.
Several heritage sites lack infrastructure and "wholesome entertainment" and this forces tourists to stay back, he said, adding that there's a shortage of around 2,00,000 hotel rooms.
"The problem I see is at these heritage places, by 7 pm tourists are forced to go back to their rooms... Most of the big money generated abroad is generated after the sunset.

"We need to have activities around these monuments and with the permission of the culture minister if we can have activities everyday, our music our dance... so that people know where they can go if they want to hear music... People should know that this place is alive and kicking," he said.
Alphons said initially the programmes can be organised on weekends and subsequently throughout the year.

At present, the number of foreign tourists visiting India is about 14.5 million, including NRIs, Alphons said. "The number is not enough with the kind of heritage we have."
He said though the number of foreign tourists coming to India has increased over the years, it was nothing compared to countries such as Malaysia, which gets 24 million footfalls.

"One building in Paris, The Louvre, gets 22 million tourists. So why should this country not get many, many times more tourists than the The Louvre?"
"I want to see that the 14.5 million foreign tourists who have come here last year go out to 22.5 million which is what the Louvre gets, in the next five years," he said.