Stakeholders in the tourism sector are perturbed over the failure of the government to promote and tap the potential of Mysuru to draw more international visitors.
The concern stems from the fact that Mysuru’s tourism sector is entirely driven by domestic travellers while it has almost fallen off the itinerary of international tourists visiting India.
Mysuru notched up a new record for the number of tourists visiting the city when it registered a footfall of over 4 million during 2023-24. The total number of tourists who visited Mysuru was pegged at 40,56,975 based on the entry tickets sold at the Mysuru palace. This is the barometer for assessing the tourist flow to the city and it rests on the premise that no first-time visitor will give the palace a miss.
Though the actual number of tourists visiting Mysuru is bound to be more as lot of weekend visitors tend to skip the palace, the ticket sales at the palace is an authentic way of estimating the tourist flow even if the numbers tend to be on the conservative side.
This is an all-time high record for Mysuru and surpassed the earlier record of 3.8 million tourists which was the bar set in 2017-18. But out of 40,56,975 tourists, the number of international visitors was pegged at 34,606 which is less than 1 per cent of the total visitors. An analysis of the past 12 years of visitors’ statistics maintained by the Palace Board indicate that tourism in Mysuru is entirely fuelled by domestic travellers and international tourists constituted less than 1 per cent of the visitors.
C. Narayana Gowda, president of Mysuru Hotel Owners Association and representing the hospitality sector said that the high footfall during 2023-24 was to a certain degree, driven by the Shakti scheme of the State government which provides free rides for women to travel across Karnataka.
“But almost all of them are low spenders and none of them hardly stay in Mysuru to make a cascading impact on the local economy. The need of the hour is to promote more international tourists and those from other States and develop adequate circuits so that people stay in Mysuru for atleast two to three days,” said Mr. Gowda.
K. Nagapathi, tourism expert and author of a few books on the subject, said that international tourists value tangible heritage sites and this should be harnessed to the fullest. “Mysuru should be promoted as the base camp to explore the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Belur, Halebidu, and Somanathapur. As a bonus, it could also be clubbed with wildlife tourism by creating another package combining Bandipur, Nagarahole, and Ranganathittu or other wildlife sanctuaries in the region to draw more international tourists,” said Prof. Nagapathi.
Not withstanding the existing potential to create new packages, it is imperative to link Mysuru by air and rail to other tourist destinations like Hampi, Goa etc., which are frequented by a high number of international tourists and market Mysuru as a package, he added.
According to Central Ministry of Tourism, 9.23 million foreign tourists visited the country during 2023. But despite improvements in connectivity to the city by way of new luxury and semi-highspeed trains, better roads, etc., Mysuru remains a far-flung destination as evident in the low footfall of international tourists.
