Single ticket to provide hassle-free access to different tourist destinations

Mysore/Mysuru: One ticket, many tourist destinations — the concept of providing access to multiple tourist destinations in and around Mysuru using a single ticket or ‘City Pass’ — may become a reality soon and this common ticket is expected to end long queues outside ticket counters. It will be an online system that will facilitate tourists who arrive in Mysuru from all over the world. At a meeting held at Hotel Mayura yesterday, Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) Managing Director Kumar Pushkar directed the officials to work towards introducing such a tourist-friendly scheme. 

This City Pass will be a passport for hassle-free entry to must-see tourist spots in Mysuru. Designed to cut down the time consumed to get entry tickets at each of these places of tourist interest, the single-ticket entry pass also aims to promote Mysuru as a tourist-friendly city.

Multiple destinations

Instead of buying tickets at every spot, visitors can purchase one ticket or the City Pass that will allow them to enter multiple destinations such as the Mysore Palace, Mysuru Zoo, Karanji Lake Nature Park, Chamundi Hill, St. Philomena’s Church, Lalitha Mahal Palace, Railway Museum and Brindavan Gardens at the premises of KRS Dam.

BookMyShow, an online ticketing platform, will be roped in by the Mysuru District Administration and the Tourism Department to sell single tickets on its site for tourist destinations.

Tourist-friendly Move

Once the visitor enters a particular tourist spot, the ticket will be punched to indicate that the tourist has visited the site. Officials said that apart from curtailing the time taken to procure tickets for places of interest, the City Pass system adds to the Mysuru’s brand and will go a long way in promoting the city as tourist-friendly place. Issues like sharing of revenue with different departments and agencies managing the tourist spots, number of sites the ticket holder can access to and the cost and also them validity of the ticket will have to be worked out, officials added. 

Online system at Zoo, Palace

At present, Mysuru Zoo and the Mysore Palace offer online tickets and for a City Pass, these two ticketing system have to be combined with others like Chamundi Hill, Brindavan Gardens and Railway Museum which are managed by multiple agencies. The Mysuru Zoo and the Karanji Lake Nature Park come under Zoo Authority of Karnataka while the Mysore Palace Board is the caretaker for the Palace. Chamundi Hill comes under the Department of Muzrai and the Cauvery Neeravari Nigama Limited takes care of the Brindavan Gardens. 

Floated during 2017 Dasara

It may be recalled here that the concept of single ticket for entry to various tourist attractions in Mysuru was floated in 2017 Dasara but it did not see success as ticketing agencies saw it from profit-loss proposition. 

A decade ago, ‘Mysore Tourism Passport’ was introduced and sold where the buyer was given the option to visit six spots including Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary and the ticket was subsidised. This didn’t go down well with the departments and agencies managing these spots as they wanted to generate money during peak tourist season. 

Also, officials managing the Palace did not support the subsidised ‘Mysore Tourism Passport’ as they thought they will lose revenue given that they had differential tariff for domestic and foreign travellers. 

AYUSH Dist. Officer Dr. B.S. Seethalakshmi, Tourism Department Deputy Director H.P. Janardhan, D. Srihari of GSS Foundation, Mysuru Hotel Owners Association President C. Narayanagowda and S. Shashikumar of Yoga Federation of Mysuru were present.