agra leading international travel website tripadvisor has rated taj mahal as the secondbest unesco world heritage site in the world welcoming the announcement hoteliers in agra said the need of the hour now was to rectify the colossal mismanagement of the historical site and sort out local irritants to ensure that the image of the taj never falls in the eyes of tourists the website ranked the taj just after cambodias angkor wat with chinas great wall coming third in order of ranking the other world heritage sites in the top 10 are perus machu picchu the iguazu falls shared by argentina and brazil the sassi of matera sites in italy auschwitz in poland the old city of jerusalem areas in istanbul turkey and the old city of krakow in poland talking to toi president of agra tourism development foundation sandeep arora said the big problem is touts locally known as lapkas who operate in wellorganised gangs they pose as guides photographers or taxi drivers and start pestering tourists both indian and foreigners for their services and charge exorbitant rates from them they sometime even get aggressive with tourists and go to the extent of threatening them if the latter refuse to take their services its high time the activities of these lapkas are stopped said arora adding that with the availability of modern technology the system can be streamlined security is also another factor that bothers hoteliers tourists who come here should feel safe rather than always looking over their shoulder said president of hotel and restaurant association rakesh chauhan adding that every time a case of assault on foreign tourist happens like the recent attack on a swiss couple it makes international headlines bringing a bad name to agra the administration should act more responsibly rather than just providing lip service to victims of such crimes officials need to show that they can act in order to instill fear among offenders chauhan said welcoming tripadvisors ranking chauhan added india and taj are synonymous there should be no compromise on the upkeep and professional management of the monument complex the lackadaisical attitude of some of those at the helm of tajs management is the root cause of the problem accountability should be enforced and there should be no excuses for tolerating mismanagementshamsuddin khan president of approved guides association agra said its a proud moment for agra and all efforts should be made to maintain and improve this ranking i will not comment on the ranking which has been given by a private website however it is always good to hear positive news about the taj and agra said archaeological survey of india superintending archaeologist bhuvan vikram