Sankranti season best suited to avoid year-end traffic snarls and to provide better hospitality

Mysore/Mysuru: The Mysuru Hotel Owners Association and Hotel Owners’ Association Charitable Trust have urged the authorities to hold the proposed Mysuru Winter Festival during Sankranti in January instead of Christmas season in December.

Addressing a press conference at Pathrakarthara Bhavan here this morning, Hotel Owners Association President C. Narayanagowda said that many multinational companies and schools declare holidays in December for Christmas and New Year and hence there will be heavy inflow of tourists to the city.

Holding the Winter Festival during this time would result in additional tourist inflow which would result in traffic jams and also hotels cannot cater to the needs of many tourists and as such, tourists return disappointed.

Hence it is advisable to hold Winter Festival in the first week of January during Sankranti festival so that tourists can participate in the festival which would help hotels provide them the desired accommodations and take care of their needs, he added.

The Winter Festival in January will also help in staggering the tourist flow and will help the industry that has just faced the devastating COVID pandemic, Narayanagowda reasoned.

“Tourists anyway come to Mysuru during the end of the year and if the Winter Festival is conducted at the same time, it will lead to extra rush and there would be traffic problems and the hospitality will be inadequate,” he claimed.

Narayanagowda also urged the authorities to hold a meeting pertaining to the Winter Festival by calling tourism stakeholders such as hoteliers, tour and travel agents, a system that was followed in the earlier years. A memorandum has been submitted to the Mysuru District Minister S.T. Somashekar and Deputy Commissioner Dr. K.V. Rajendra in this regard, he added.

Answering a question, Narayanagowda said that the night traffic ban in Bandipur Tiger Reserve must be enforced from 6 pm to 6 am instead of 9 pm to 6 am so that road kill could be controlled. Association Hon. Secretary A.R. Ravindra Bhat, Charitable Trust President Subramanya Tantri, office-bearers Mahesh Kamath and K. Bhaskar Shetty were present.