Mysuru: Heavily discounted hotel rooms and a slew of attractive events are on offer this Mysuru Dasara as the district administration and local hotels fight to draw more tourists to the city of palaces, which has seen a drop of 70 per cent in tourism since the Cauvery water dispute flared up recently.
With hardly any bookings received for Dasara, the Hotel Owners Association of Mysuru has announced a 30 per cent discount on rooms for the next two months.
“The bookings of as many as 2530 rooms were cancelled for 11th, 12th and 13th of this month. Except for the 10 to 15 per cent bookings received through web portals like Travel Guru and travel agencies, we have absolutely no bookings at all. We are only getting a few walk- in tourists,” said association head, C Narayangowda, adding,“Tourists are giving Mysuru a miss and are heading for Goa and Hyderabad instead. So we have decided to give a 30 per cent discount on cards for all 6500 rooms in 278 hotels , whether small, medium or luxury in the city. We are also giving a 50 per cent discount to the district administration to accommodate artistes and guests. ”
Meanwhile, the Mysuru district administration is planning to hold more attractive events like Aharamela this year. “There will be 95 stalls and we will serve as many as 18 styles of food, from tribal traditional food like bamboo biryani, to coastal, Malnad, north Karnataka, North Indian and continental. Also healthy food made of positive grains, like navane payasa, will be a special attraction,” said Deputy Director of Food and Civil Supplies, Dr K Rameswarappa.
Dasara Sports will this year will be inaugurated by Para Olympic medal winner, Deepa Mallik. Children of Drama Juniors fame, Amogha, Achintya and Mahendra will inaugurate the Children’s Dasara.
As many as 200 artistes , including Hariharan, Unnikrishnan, Muraad Ali Khan, Syed Salaaluddin Paasha, Shashank Ravindrachaari, Jayatheertha Mevundi, Pandit Sagotho Baaduri, Sri Vinayaka Toravi and B Jayasri, are expected to perform before an illuminated Mysuru palace.
