Tourists throng Mysuru as NiV virus scare hits Kerala

A large number of tourists have been thronging the 'City of Palaces' to enjoy their vacation. The tourists inflow was high over the last weekends due to the outbreak of Nipha virus infection in Kerala. Thousands of tourists thronged Mysuru Palace, Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens, Chamundi Hill and other spots in and around the city on Saturday and Sunday.

A large number of tourists visited places of worship such as Srikanteshwara temple at Nanjangud and Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) in Srirangapatna, Mandya district. However, a majority of the tourists left the city on Monday evening as schools have reopened.

The visitors, not only from the neighbouring Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but, from North Indian states too visited the Heritage city.

The inflow of tourists was almost double during the weekend, between May 25 and 28. With people from various parts of the state and the neighbouring states choosing to spend their holiday in Mysuru, the number of visitors to the Palace on Saturday and Sunday was 23,227 and 27,266, respectively. Likewise, 22, 246 people visited Mysuru Zoo on Saturday, 26,259 tourists thronged the Zoo on Sunday.

The numbers were much higher than the usual weekend rush in the city. A large number of devotees made a beeline to the Chamundi Hill.

Hotels and other accommodation facilities in the city made good business over the weekend. Almost all rooms in hotels were booked in advance. Many tourists were forced to leave the city due to unavailability of accommodation. A manager of a hotel said that the visitors had made online bookings in advance and many of them had booked rooms in May first week itself. A few tourists, who did not book rooms, had approached the hotels for accommodation.

The traffic density was also high in the city and traffic jams were common, causing inconvenience to road users. The density of traffic was high near Mysuru Palace, Sayyaji Rao Road, Chamundi Hill Road, etc. Owing to rains in the evening, traffic jams were reported on busy streets of the city, the police said. A large number of tourist vehicles from Kerala and other districts were common on the city streets, police said.