Traffic highest from Bengaluru, America; plans to attract Europe

Mysuru: Mysuru Dasara-2019 website www.mysoredasara.gov.in has been re-launched and in its new avatar it is generating very high traffic, particularly from netizens in Bengaluru and the United States of America (USA).

The total hits as on Sept.15 are 85,029 and the highest hit was on the same day (Sept.15) with 10,639 hits. Average time spent on website is 3 minute 55 seconds.

Tourism Department Deputy Director H. Janardhan, speaking to Star of Mysore yesterday, said that the most visited pages were Events, Home Page and Dasara Tickets. The top six countries that visited the website included India, United States, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Germany and the highest traffic among all these is from Bengaluru.

Top five regions in the country that visited are Karnataka,Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Telangana and Kerala, while top five cities are Bengaluru, Mysuru, Chennai, Hubballi and Mangaluru.

When it comes to international traffic, US tops the list with the top five regions California, Texas, Illinois, New York and North Carolina while the top five US cities are Chicago, Irvine, New York, Charlotte and San Jose.

The Department has also provided the statistics on the kind of devices used to access information and the Device Category are: Mobile users: 73.14 per cent, Tablet users: 0.87 per cent, Desktop users: 25.99 per cent.

“It is a win-win situation for everyone including the Department, tour operators and the end users. We are also planning to tap Europe sector so that international tourists can plan their visit a year in advance. This is apart from the conventional publicity like branding in Railway Stations, Bus Stands and hoardings in strategic locations,” he said.

However, the tour operators said that the effort though is very good, it looks like too little, too late as mostly it is the domestic travellers who come, while the international travellers though visit the website do not have time to plan the travel.

Mysuru Travels Association President B.S. Prashanth, speaking to SOM, said it was a good sign that the people are searching the website for information on Dasara. But, if only the efforts were done much earlier then the response would have been better.

Asked how much of the hits will turn into business, he said that the hope is from the domestic tourists and the response would be known only when the booking starts for hotels and vehicles.

Asked about the Karnataka International Travel Expo held  recently in Bengaluru, he said that since it was a B-2-B (business to business), there were 300 domestic businesses and over 100 international players including travel and writers and bloggers who showed interest. As a result, a few of the tour operators from city were sending itineraries for booking hotel rooms in Mysuru, Kodagu and Wayanad. But most of the leads were from domestic tourists, he added.

Flights boost tourism

However, the hope this year for expecting more tourists is because of air services from Mysore Airport to cities like Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi and Goa and hence more tourists from these places are likely to visit Mysuru during Dasara, said Prashanth.

Dasara Website

The Dasara website as soon as it opens shows “Mysuru Calling, come celebrate the Royal Heritage of the City” with the Howdah elephant carrying Goddess Chamundeshwari in the background and the second screen shows, “A Royal Celebration you can’t miss’ depicting the torchlight parade and the illuminated K.R. Circle.

The website is also announcing about Dasara Quiz which began from Sept. 14 and the results are being announced regularly. 

Apart from this, another attraction is that people can click photographs and upload to the social media with hashtag #MysuruDasara and get featured.