agra a popular usbased travel guide in its yearly list of places not to visit has issued an advisory to its over 114 million followers to avoid visiting taj mahal in 2018 fodors travel has made this recommendation based on media reports about the monuments conservation by mudpack therapy fodors travel which released its first ever guide for american travellers way back in 1937 has mentioned on its website that unless your dream taj mahal visit involves being photographed standing in front of a mudcaked and bescaffolded dome maybe give it until 2019 at the earliest meanwhile asi officials said that during the mudpack process one side of the monument will always be uncovered for visitors reacting to the advisory rajiv tiwari president of the federation of travel association of agra said such an advisory that too from a top usbased travel guidebook publisher will have an impact on the local tourism industry people who have kept taj mahal somewhere on top of their wish list will think twice before visiting the monument this year the other destinations that have found a place the publishers not to visit list include ao phang nga national park in thailand for its poor water quality all tourist attractions in myanmar due the human rights violation in the country venice machu picchu in peru amsterdam koh tachai in thailand the galpagosecuador mount everestnepal missouri and the great wall of china tiwari criticized the travel guide for issuing an advisory without any legwork they dont seem to have done any legwork before making this recommendation on their website conservation work on four minarets and facades was completed last year work on the dome will be carried out in phases since the geometry of the four sides of taj is very similar pictures taken from the side opposite to the one where mudpack therapy is being used will not be very different he said deepak dan president of agra tourism guide welfare association said though the advisory will have little impact on local tourist footfall it is the job of asi to keep at least local tour operators and travel guide associations informed about the monument conservation program so that it can be passed on to foreign travel agents and portals to counter any misinformationmanoj kumar bhatnagar a member of asis science branch and supervisor of the taj mudpack therapy program said the therapy will be carried out from april to november right now roorkeebased central building research institute is studying the loadbearing capacity of the main structure dome once that is over we will start with the therapy which will be done in phases so that one side of the dome is always visible according to official records taj mahal is visited most between october and march every year it is disappointing to know that without proper ground check an advisory like this has been issued by a foreign publisher since it was built in 1632 this is for the first time that taj mahal