crazy4gmat wrote:IMO A since past perfet tense needs to be used for two events one preceding the another..
Once you have "before", "after" or any such prepositions indicating order of those events we don't need had.
I think its important to understand the reason for using past perfect.
We need past perfect to show the sequence of events and only if earlier event has some bearing on later. Moreover, if the sequence is obvious then we don't need past perfect.
In the example above "Before" already indicates that the town was popular destination but no longer now. In this case I don't see the need to use past perfect.
I would love to see the OA though. But looks like our friend @ 4meonly is done with his GMAT
