Boost to tourism as hotels, resorts, booked till Jan.2

Mysuru: The year-end holiday rush to the city has brought cheers to the owners of hotels, resorts, restaurants and other places of tourist interest. The weekend, beginning Friday last, saw a host of holidays right up to Christmas today and the season will continue till the end of new year and the tourists from different parts of the country were seen making a beeline to the cultural capital of Karnataka.

On Sunday, the Palace witnessed 30,000 footfalls and the flower show in the same place attracted even more people, with nearly 45,000 visitors enjoying the Winter Festival. The Zoo recorded about 15,000 tourists till afternoon yesterday.

“This year-end holiday season has given a big boost to tourism in Mysuru. There are 8,000 hotel rooms in the city and the outskirts and 98 percent of them have been booked till Jan.3. Out of this, there are 280 hotels with lodges apart from 450 lodges which are all booked. Even the bakeries and restaurants are doing good business,” said Mysuru Hotel Owners Association President C. Narayanagowda speaking to Star of Mysore, here this morning.

The visitors are pouring into the city using all modes of transport like KSRTC buses, trains, taxis and the business for even tours and travel agents have picked up, he added.

Chamundeswari Temple, atop Chamundi Hill is seeing good rush with many of the devotees and visitors forced to have darshan of the deity from a distance and having to return.

Nearly 3.5 million people visit Mysuru every year. But this is a conservative estimate as this statistic is based on the tickets purchased at Mysore Palace. However, the number of visitors could be more than 1.5 times.

Speaking to SOM here this morning, Tourism Deputy Director H. Janardhan said, “We have estimated the visitors to Mysuru based on the tickets purchased at the Mysore Palace in a year. However, not every visitor or tourist who visits the Palace premises takes a tour of the Palace. One may simply view the Palace from outside for which there is no entry fee. This figure could almost be nearly double. Hence, there could be about 5 million tourists or more visiting the city every year.”

Asked about the year-end tourist season rush, he said that since the majority of the hotels are booked till the end of year, it is a good sign that tourism is getting a boost in Mysuru.

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