Mysuru tourism sector derails again due to Covid-19

Although there was a series of holidays, over the past weekend, the ‘City of Palaces’, one of the major tourist hubs, Mysuru, is witnessing a decline in the number of tourists visiting. The tourists’ footfall is decreasing due to the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With the outbreak of the pandemic, the city is facing adversity as its major source of revenue is tourism. As per tourism and hospitality sources, more than 2 lakh people are either directly or indirectly involved in tourism-related activities. The stakeholders fear that the second wave would affect adversely than the first wave last year.

The tourists inflow was 80% less in 2020-21, compared to 2019-20. This year, the situation might be worse. A majority of tourists to Mysuru are from Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Besides Covid, the Assembly polls in both the states caused a dip of tourists.

In Mysuru, the tourist season commences in April and the flow used to be high over two months, owing to summer vacation. But, this time, the situation is different. Even though there is no lockdown or closure of state or district borders, people are not ready to take a chance.

It has to be recalled that the tourism sector was affected severely in 2020, due to lockdown. However, the sector was returning to normalcy and recovered up to 70%. More than 1.5 lakh tourists visited the city in January. But, again the sector is disrupting. The city gets nearly 35 to 40 lakh tourists in normal years. However, last year, the inflow was approximately eight lakh, said an official of the Tourism department.

Tourism stakeholders, including travel agencies and hoteliers are severely affected.

A taxi driver, Manjunatha, said that last time, his taxi was stopped due to lockdown. “But, this time, he hardly gets one short trip a day. Earlier, tourists used to hire vehicles to reach Kodagu, Tamil Nadu or Kerala. However, now, a majority of the people take their own vehicle, due to the Covid scare,” he said.

Shivananda, a manager of a hotel, said, “There are 50 rooms in the hotel and a majority of them used to be occupied from April to June. But, this time, there are no bookings. We closed the hotel last year and opened again in January. Now, again, the business has derailed. We don’t know about the future.”

According to Shivananda, people are visiting Mysuru, but only for a day. “They come in the morning, spend time here and return,” he added.