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Business English: India's top tourist sites refuse dollar for admission

Forced now to pay in rupees, US tourists will see a near 30 per cent increase in the cost of visits to leading Indian tourist attractions. von Jo Johnson (New Delhi)

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India´s top tourist sites refuse dollar for admission

Supermodels are not the only ones worrying about the value of their dollar contracts. After years of urging foreign tourists to pay in dollars whenever possible, the Taj Mahal and other Indian heritage sites will now insist on a proper hard currency - the rupee. The country's culture ministry took the step after confronting a sharp fall in the rupee value of its dollar ticket sales. "Keeping in view international practices and also to avoid any anomaly on account of falling exchange rates of the US dollar vis-à-vis rupee and consequent fall in revenues, the government has decided to denominate the entry fee for the foreigners for all the monuments in Indian rupees only," the ministry said. This month, the dollar's fall became a subject of tabloid notoriety when it was reported that supermodel Gisele Bündchen had refused to be paid in dollars. Her agent has since denied she had any currency requirements. Forced now to pay in rupees, US tourists will see a near 30 per cent increase in the cost of visits to leading Indian tourist attractions. Until recently, non-Indians were required to pay $5 a person - converted to Rs250 (€4.34) if they lacked dollar bills - to enter World Heritage sites. The ministry of culture said the $5 entry fee had been set at a time when the dollar was worth about Rs50, compared with its current value of just more than Rs39. The tariff of Rs250 that foreigners will now pay for entry to sites such as the Taj Mahal and Humayun's Tomb is equivalent to $6.41. "The dollar used to be the most popular currency for tourists to carry, but now there are alternatives. There was also a feeling it was time we moved to the international norm of accepting entry fees in our own currency," said the ministry of culture. The move marks another symbolic coming of age for the Indian economy, which has emerged from a period of severe balance of payments crises to become one of the largest hoarders of foreign exchange. With annualised capital inflows of $250bn (€171bn), it is struggling to cope with excess liquidity and a fast-appreciating currency. Even if they are now paying solely in local currency, foreign visitors will continue, however, to pay a far higher rate than local tourists. To see Humayun's Tomb in Delhi, one of the great examples of Mughal architecture, foreign tourists will be charged 25 times more than Indian citizens. More than 4.4m tourists visited India last year, bringing in about $6.6bn in foreign exchange earnings, an increase of 14.6 per cent over 2005, but the Archaeological Survey of India has struggled to maintain many of its protected sites. A boost in foreign ticket receipts will help to pay for much needed conservation work. The culture ministry admitted earlier this year that almost 36 historical monuments figuring prominently on the ASI's list of government-protected sites had vanished under unauthorised urban development.

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