Mysore: Over 13 lakh tourists, including 3000 foreigners visited the 90 day Dasara Exhibition that ended recently, allowing the Karnataka Exhibition Authority and the private stakeholders to make a profit of around a crore each.
The exhibition proved to be a bigger draw this time as only 11 lakh has visited in 2012 and 9.5 lakh in 2011. A beautiful illuminated arch had welcomed tourists to the exhibition with its many fountains , amusement park, music concerts and 180 commercial stalls selling plastic kitchen ware, women’s fashion accessories, blankets from Tamil Nadu , Rajasthani artifacts and Dasara dolls.
The fair was a success despite the KEA’s failure to provide the promised cuisine typical to various parts of the country as tourists seemed to enjoy munching on the mundane mirchi bajjis and papads besides soft mallige idlies and churumuri on offer in its stalls.
Although declared a plastic free zone,the ground was littered with plastic cups and plates and had smelly open drains.
Security too was lax with only 12 CCTV cameras keeping watch on the crowds, leading to at least 50 mobile thefts in the process.
“Safety is a concern. They should increase the number of CCTV cameras installed in the grounds,” said, Divya Sudhir, a tourist. While the Dasara exhibition has ended, the city had more to look forward to as 40 weavers from 16 states descended on it for a five day Silk India Festival which began here on Wednesday.
