Statistics reveal decline in tourists this year

It may be due to political imbroglio or intermittent rains during 10-day fest

The figures at two important tourist places-Mysore Palace and Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, speak about slight decline in tourists visiting the heritage city when compared to previous years.

Although exact reason for this is not known, it is attributed to intermittent rains and political turmoil. In fact, the district administration and the State government had spent a good amount on the publicity for Dasara-2010. They had pinned hopes on good turnout of tourists to Mysore during Dasara as this was 400th year of Mysore Dasara.

However, political imbroglio and threat to three-year-old BJP Government in the State too made the tourists to stay away from Mysore. Deputy Director, Mysore Palace Board, P V Avaradhi told Deccan Herald that as many as 1,03,412 tourists visited the Mysore Palace between October 8 to 16 when compared to 1,09,639 tourists visited during Dasara previous year. It was interesting to note that even there was slight decline in foreign visitors to the city this time.

The reasons for this are not known. The number of tourists who visited the palace during Dasara is as follows:  Oct 8-7272, Oct 9-12,097, Oct 10-16,648, Oct 11-11,010, Oct 12-9441, Oct 13-10819, Oct 14-10,452, Oct 15-12,848 and Oct 16-12,825. However, the palace was remained closed for tourists on October 17 on account of Vijaya Dashami celebrations.

He said usually there will be more number of tourists on the next day of Vijaya Dashami Day and their expectation was not wrong. In fact, the palace had a good number of visitors who had come to witness the Jamboo Savari on Sunday. The State Government had announced holiday on entry tax for all tourist vehicles during Dasara to promote tourism. Despite tax holiday still the turnout of tourists to the city of palaces was not much, he added.

Meanwhile, an officer of the Mysore Zoo said as many as 1.38 lakh tourists visited zoo during ten-day Dasara festival this year as against 1.58 lakh previous year. The number is as follows: Oct 8-6,180, Oct 9-10,223, Oct 10-14,021, Oct 11-8,641, Oct 12-7006, Oct 13—9,536, Oct 14-8568, Oct 15-9973, Oct 16-20043 and Oct 17-28,423.

There was not much tourist flow on 4th, 5th and 7th day of Dasara festival may be due to rains. Most of the visitors to Mysore during Dasara are from Kerala and even they did not turn up in good number this year, the officer noted.