Heritage City: Tourists back and so is the zing

Mysuru: The long weekend and the Diwali and Rajyotsava holidays have ensured a huge flow of tourists to the Heritage City in the  past four days.
The Dasara Exhibition, which still remains a big attraction, saw as many as 35,000 visitors on Monday. Mysuru Zoo had 12,343 tourists on October 29, 20,699 on October 30, 24,778 on October 31 and  11,619 tourists on  November 1, according to Zoo Executive Director, Ms Kamala. “After a drastic drop in tourists following the Cauvery water row, tourist inflow has picked up and by the end of Dasara, there has been a steady flow of tourists. On October 29 and 30, hotel rooms remained 100 percent occupied,” Mysuru hotel owners association head and member of Karnataka Tourism Forum, Mr Narayan Gowda said.

“While the tourist inflow from Tamil Nadu had  dropped after the Cauvery agitation turned violent, this week end, at least twenty percent of  tourists were from Tamil Nadu. While 10 percent of the crowd were domestic tourists especially from Bengaluru, 30 percent of them were from Kerala, 5 percent were foreigners and the rest were from other parts of the country including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and North India,” Mr Narayan Gowda added.

At the Dasara exhibition, among 237 commercial stalls, as many as 70 stalls are being set up by merchants from Tamil Nadu, according to CEO of Karnataka Exhibition Authority, Mr Shashikumar.

 Besides the play area, food court and 29 stalls by zilla panchayats of all districts depicting regional specialties and 42 stalls of various departments depicting their schemes and programmes are attracting an average  10,000 visitors daily and 30,000 in the weekends. A model of Amarnath yatra, water fountains and sale of Dasara dolls are adding glitter to the 90-day long Dasara exhibition which will conclude by December end.