All these years we knew Amba Vilas palace as a heritage of the blue blooded lineage. But the common man has made it scale the top rung of popularity which has been indicated by the latest survey carried out by the The New York Times.
The palace has been ranked as the second ‘must see’ tourist buildings among the 31 places all over the world. In the newspaper’s poll in 2010, it was ranked fourth. This year, the first place, however, goes to Madame Tussauds wax Museum in London.
The palace draws not less than 6.5 million people visitors every year. Of them, 10% are foreigners. In fact, the palace is inching towards the first place as the number of the visitors to the palace is increasing by 10% to 15% per cent every year. Palace officials said Amba Vilas might have already become No. 1 in the world by the parameters adopted by The New York Times.
“We collect fees from only those who enter the inner precincts of the palace. But there are double the number of people who visit the palace from the outer precincts to enjoy the lighting,” said Subramanya, deputy director of the palace board. The palace has earned revenue of Rs7.5 crore per annum at an average for the last three years from entry fee.
The palace was built during the time of Henry Irwin in 1912. Built in Indo-Sarcenic architecture, is the only palace in the world which is fully lit electrically.
Every year, the palace draws nearly 60,000 tourists from Spain, Britain, Italy, United States, Canada, Australia and Russia.
Comments