A view of the crowd visiting the Mysuru Palace flower show on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: M.A. SRIRAM
The holiday season spanning from Christmas to New Year has seen a surge in tourists visiting Mysuru with the hospitality sector announcing 100 per cent occupancy for the entire duration.
The city has nearly 425 hotels and 10,500 rooms catering to tourists in the luxury segment to those preferring accommodation in the budget category. The Mysuru Hotel Industries Association president C. Narayana Gowda has said that all the rooms are booked for the December 22, 2024 to January 1, 2025 period.
Bulk of the rooms were booked in advance through the online mode and the occupancy rate was 100 per cent and this included resorts, home stays, service apartments in and around Mysuru, said Mr. Narayana Gowda.
For a city whose main economic driver is tourism, this is a positive development and the week spanning from Christmas to New Year marks one of the peak tourism periods of the year. This was evident in the traffic jams and snarls on the roads close to the palace, K.R. Circle, J.C. Wadiyar Circle, JLB Road, Sayyaji Rao Road etc.
There is a spike in tourist footfall during the summer holidays in May/June after the conclusion of school final and board exams. There is a similar surge in tourist footfall during Dasara and again between Christmas and New Year.
Mysuru for long has been a destination for all seasons and bulk of the tourists are from Bengaluru, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala apart from visitors from other parts of the country.
Known for its rich cultural heritage and the grandeur of the palace, the city tourism is fuelled by domestic travellers though the number of international visitors is not encouraging.
While places of tourist interest within Mysuru — palace, zoo, Chamundi Hills, St. Philomena’s Church, Jaganmohan Palace — are a major draw, this also has a cascading impact on nearby places.
The historical town of Srirangapatna known for the Ranganathaswamy temple, Dariya Daulat, Gumbaz, Nimishambha Temple, is another major draw and is almost always included as part of Mysuru circuit.
The other places which witnesses a surge is Bandipur that is on the way to both Ooty in Tamil Nadu and Wayanad in Kerala. Kodagu with its sylvan surroundings, chilly weather and coffee plantations has emerged as an independent holiday destination while the potential of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Keshava temple at Somanathapur is yet to be tapped.
In a bid to promote tourism the Palace Board and the Tourism Department tend to organise events every year and the Mysuru Palace Flower Show 2024 — which will be on till December 31 — is turning out to be a great draw among the visitors.
The allure of the illuminated palace and the prospects of viewing multitudes of flower models in pleasant climatic conditions at night has turned out to be the right mix for tourists to give who are flocking to the venue in large numbers all of which augurs well for the local economy and tourism sector.
Published – December 25, 2024 08:25 pm IST
