For tourists, planning vacations during the monsoon to stay at a cozy place and watch the rainfall in Karnataka has been the norm for many years now. However, this year, the monsoon tourism has taken a severe hit as the flash floods in different parts of the country have led to tourists avoiding places where there is more rainfall. An average 60% drop has been observed by tour operators in the bookings made during the season this year.
Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru and other regions in the Malenadu belt were usually frequented by tourists during this time of the year. “Looking at the situation in Himachal Pradesh and a few other States, quite naturally the tourists have gotten scared. The Mysuru–Ooty–Kerala package used to do well during monsoon previously, but this year, there are not many bookings. Kodagu has some demand, but not as much as always,” said Saif from Sangita Travels near Anand Rao Circle.
‘Temple tourism doing well’
He said that temple tourism, which has been trending for the last couple of years, continued on a strong note. “This time most people are only asking about temples. Our Tirupati package is doing very well; we have more bookings for it,” he said.
Some tour operators said that they had never had such a bad business during the rainy season. “It is so dull this year [by almost 80%] that it is surprising even for us. We do not know if it is because of the month of ‘Aashada’ [a period during which some people do not travel] or because of rain. Some are scared that they might get stuck at tourist destinations if it rains heavily,” said Vishal from Vishal Tours and Travels in Indiranagar.
Tourism Department officials also acknowledged the drop. “Although we have not clearly observed any trend as we do not have any data, it has come to our notice that not many tourists are visiting this year,” said Tourism Department director V. Ram Prasath Manohar.
Stressing on the need to promote monsoon tourism, he said, “Kerala has been promoting monsoon tourism in a very good way. We are yet to do that, especially with coastal tourist destinations and interior Karnataka region.”
