A popular US-based travel guide, in its yearly list of places "not to visit", has issued an advisory to its over 1.14 million followers to avoid visiting Taj Mahal, India, in 2018. Fodor's Travel has made this recommendation based on media reports about the monument's conservation by mud-pack therapy.
The travel guide, which released its first-ever guide for American travelers way back in 1937, has mentioned on its website that "unless your dream Taj Mahal visit involves being photographed standing in front of a mud-caked and be-scaffolded dome, maybe give it until 2019 at the earliest", Nyooz.com reported.
Officials at the Archeological Survey of India said that during the mud-pack 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, criticized the travel guide for issuing an advisory without "any legwork".
"They don't seem to have done any legwork before making this recommendation on their website. Conservation work on four minarets and facades was completed last year. Work on the dome will be carried out in phases," he added.
Other destinations that have found a place in the publisher's "not to visit list" include Ao Phang Nga National Park in Thailand (for its poor water quality), all tourist attractions in Myanmar (due the country's human rights violations), Venice, Machu Picchu in Peru, Amsterdam, Koh Tachai in Thailand, the Galapagos-Ecuador Mount Everest-Nepal, the US state Missouri over racial discrimination and the Great Wall of China because of the overwhelming smog in Beijing.
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