The tourism sector in Mysuru is feeling the pinch of the Cauvery crisis with Mandya Bandh resulting in a perceptible decline in the tourists’ footfall during the weekend.
The Mandya Bandh was called on Saturday, September 23, to protest the release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu and the cascading impact was on the tourist flow as well.
‘’Since the last 4 months, weekends starting from Friday evening till Monday morning used to result in 100 per cent occupancy of almost all the hotels in Mysuru. But for the first time in the recent past, the occupancy rate dipped to about 50 per cent to 55 per cent,’’ said C. Narayanagowda, president of Mysuru Hotel Owners Association.
There are nearly 160 hotels ranging from luxury segment to those providing standard accommodation and the city has 10,000 rooms by way of rooms. While it is difficult to find accommodation during weekends, there was no such rush this week due to the Mandya Bandh.
Though the Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway was not blocked and was out of bounds for the farmers, weekend tourists from Bengaluru played it safe. In the past, people have experienced the agony of being stranded on highways due to bandh and though traffic on the expressway was not affected tourists, perhaps, did not want to take a chance, said Mr. Narayanagowda.
Palace Board Deputy Director T.S. Subramanya said the number of tourists on Saturday was less compared to the last or the earlier weeks and attributed it to Mandya Bandh.
Coupled with the Cauvery agitation, the stakeholders are perturbed that this year’s Dasara will be scaled down as officially announced by the Mysuru district in charge Minister H.C. Mahadevappa.
‘’Karnataka has faced such crisis in the past and Dasara was held as per tradition without affecting either tourism or normal life. “While Cauvery issue affects all of us and we too are stakeholders and will stand by the farmers in this fight, there is little point in disrupting the economy by scaling down Dasara which is a time-honoured tradition,’’ according to other stakeholders from the tourism sector.
Tourism sector provides jobs to nearly 80,000 to 100,000 people across Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Kodagu besides creating ancillary jobs. The beneficiaries range from daily wagers in hotels and restaurants to artisans, roadside vendors, auto drivers or tongawallahs all of whom are dependent on tourist sector for sustenance.
A similar view was expressed by T.S. Srivatsa, BJP MLA, who opined that scaling down Dasara would affect thousands whose livelihood was dependent on tourism.
The peak tourism season in Mysuru commences during the last week of September and hits a peak during Dasara. The momentum sustains till November after which it hits another peak during Christmas lasting through the year-end followed by third peak during the summer holidays. A sizeable number of tourists to Mysuru are from Tamil Nadu and Kerala and the Cauvery crisis could impact this segment, fear the stakeholders. Mysuru used to receive nearly 3.5 million to 3.8 million to during the pre-pandemic times and COVID-19 gave it crippling blow. But the sector was on course to recovery with nearly 3.3 million tourists visiting the city during 2022-23. But it remains to be seen whether the traction can be sustained despite scaled down Dasara and Cauvery crisis.
