Taj Mahal Most Popular Google Street View Destination. 31 New Indian Archaeological Sites Added

368 year old Taj Mahal, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site is the most popular destination for Google Street View tourists.

Offline, around 12,000 tourists visit Taj Mahal every day (4.5 million a year).

In a recent blog post published by Google, it was mentioned that not only in India, but Taj Mahal tops the list in whole of Asia. Amita Khattri, Street View Program Manager, Google said, “In the past year, India’s iconic Taj Mahal, published on Street View only last February, has emerged as one of the most popular Asian places for global virtual travelers.”

Online tourists from Singapore, Australia, Korea, Philippines & Malaysia visited Taj Mahal maximum number of times. Visitors from India also visited Taj more than any other destination.

Cambodia’s Angkor temple is the second most visited destination in Asia, as per Google Street View data.

The top 10 Indian destinations which were visited most by global e-tourists on Google maps are:

1. Taj Mahal
2. Red Fort
3. Qutub Minar
4. Agra Fort
5. Lavasa
6. Lovely Professional University
7. Humayun’s Tomb
8. Shaniwar Wada
9. Jantar Mantar
10. IIT Bombay

31 New Archeological Sites Added

Google Street View came to India in 2011, but due to complain from Bangalore Police, it was banned. In 2013, it came back with only showing monuments and heritage sites.

We had reported last year that Google and Archeological Survey of India have teamed up to provide 360 degree virtual tour of the most popular Indian heritage sites, which included Taj Mahal, Red Fort, Humayun’s Tomb , Agra Fort, Ajanta and Ellora caves, the Elephanta Caves.

In another blog post, Google announced that they are adding 31 new archeological sites in their Google Cultural Institute database and Google Maps, which can be accessed via Google Street View as well. After the fresh addition, tourists from all over the world can now view other popular heritage sites such as:

• Gateway of India in Mumbai
• Sun Temple in Konark, Odisha
• Mysore Palace, Mysore
• Nalanda University, Bihar
• Group of Monuments at Pattadakal
• Thanjavur Temple, Tamil Nadu
• ….and many more.

Google has successfully partnered with Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation, Karnataka Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage, Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation to introduce more heritage monuments and archeological sites into their database.