India's tourism industry feels the sting of citizenship law protests

India's tourism industry has suffered a setback owing to the new controversial citizenship law that has triggered massive protests around the country and induced travel advisories from at least seven countries.

More than twenty-five people have been killed, several injured and thousands arrested as a result of protests around the country against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The law makes it easy for religious minorities fleeing India's neighbouring three Muslim countries to be granted citizenship. The same facility has not been granted to Muslims, leading to widespread anger within the country. 

The headlines have had a negative impact on India's tourism industry as the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Israel, Singapore, Canada and Taiwan are some of the countries that have issued travel advisories for their citizens visiting India. Tourists have been warned by their respective countries to exercise caution or not visit altogether the restive regions in India where the protests are taking place.

The tense atmosphere has prompted as many as 200,000 tourists to cancel a visit to the famous Taj Mahal in Agra which is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.

Dinesh Kumar, a police inspector in Taj Mahal who has access to tourists' data, spoke to a foreign news website to confirm that a 60 percent decline in visitor footfalls in December was witnessed compared to last year.

"Indian and foreign tourists have been calling our control rooms to check security. We assure them protection, but many still decide to stay away," said Kumar.

The Taj Mahal scoops up $14mn annually from entrance fees alone and attracts more than 6.5 million tourists each year. A foreign tourist has to pay $15 to enter the grounds surrounding the monument while nationals from neighbouring countries are given a discount.

Managers of guest houses and luxury hotels around the palace said the last-minute cancellations have had a disastrous effect on the business environment of the country keeping in mind economic growth has already slowed to 4.5 percent this year.

A group of European travelers spoke to Reuters news agency to reveal how they had cut their trip to India by 20 days owing to the dangerous circumstances.

"We are all retired folks. For us, travel has to be slow and relaxing. The newspaper headlines have led to a sense of concern and we will leave sooner than we had planned," said Dave Millikin, one of the European tourists.

Sandeep Arora, president of the Agra Tourism Development Foundation, said the government's move of blocking internet in areas where protests were taking place had affected travel and tourism by 50 to 60 percent.

Jayanta Malla Baruah, the head of the Assam Tourism Development Corporation, said every year as many as 600,000 tourists visit the state. However, this time around, the number had declined by 90 percent.

He said the cause of the decline in the number of tourists was due to "the ongoing protests and travel advisories by various countries".