The tourism minis try data shows 327.6 million domestic and 4.66 million for ists visited Tami eign tourists visited Tami Nadu, making it the top tour ist destination in the country in 2014. In Madurai, pilgrimage kes up a large share of the makes up a large share of the tourism, but with 25,000 visi tors daily and `6 crore reve nue per annum, the Meenak shi Sundareswarar temple attracts nearly all the footfalls and fills its coffers.
In comparison, the re maining temples in the dis trict go unnoticed despite a rich history of their own. A case in point is the Thiruma rainathar temple in Thiru vathavur, which is the birth place of Tamil Saivite saint Manickavasagar or the Thiru vedaganathar temple, which was named after a historic dispute between Tamil Jains and Saivaites during the Pan dya reign. However, it is esti mated that the T hir u parankundram temple is visited by 15,000 people daily while the Thirumohur temple is as low as 500 on weekdays The Thiruvedaganathar tem ple has far fewer visitors than the Thirumohur temple.
Experts feel the govern ment has to step in to promote other temples as it would boost the local economies. “It is the departments of the Hindu religious and charita ble endowment and tourism besides the district authority that is to be blamed for the situation. The government is collecting revenue from major temples and is not using the funds to promote other historic temples,“ said state Vishwa Hindu Parishad joint secretary Chinmaya R Somasundaram.
The authorities are trying to spread awareness about these temples but lack of a comprehensive tour itinerary and transport facilities to all the sites is proving to be dampener. “In case special services like hop on, hop off systems are introduced, it will be useful for tourists,“ said R Malliga of Virudhachalam.
Commenting on it, an officer in the tourism department said they are doing their bit on creating awareness about the temples and have plans to operate special buses from Meenakshi temple to other temples.
