There was a perceptible decline in the number of tourists visiting places of interest in Mysuru and surrounding regions on Friday on account of elections.
The decline in the tourist numbers was visible at the Mysuru palace which normally draws more than 10,000 ticketed visitors per day. Summer is one of the peak tourism seasons in Mysuru and it was evident in the figures. Soon after the completion of school exams in March and early April, the footfalls to the palace increased from a low of 5265 to 19,471 on April 13 and maintained a similar trend till the third week of April. The tourist numbers was 12673 on April 20 and 13,895 on April 21.
But on Friday when the elections were held, the palace received only 5873 tourists of whom 5003 were adults, 771 were children, 45 were students while foreign tourists were 54.
There was a continuous awareness drive to the voters not to skip elections and even the hospitality sector in Mysuru joined the initiative and issued instructions to its member organisations to provide leave for all its workers to enable them to visit their hometowns so as to cast their votes.
The Mysuru zoo which is another top attraction of the city was closed to tourists due to elections. Mahesh Kumar, Executive Director of the zoo said the closure was announced a week earlier and this was to enable the staff and employees to visit their respective hometowns where their votes are registered and exercise their franchise. Besides, voting is an important element in a democratic set up and we wanted to discourage people from traveling or holidaying on an election day, he added.
Narayana Gowda of Hotel Owners Association said there was 45 per cent to 50 per cent of the normal business and the number of walk-in customers seeking rooms was low. Though the association had said that rooms would be denied to those coming from places where elections will be held on April 26, there were no such customers. “Bulk of the clients were from States or constituencies which was yet to go to the polls,” said Mr. Narayana Gowda.
