The city whose tourism season peaks during Dasara and summer holidays, is emerging as a popular year-end destination in recent years.
This is true this year as well and the hospitality sector in Mysuru has declared a sell-out of nearly 10,500 rooms that are otherwise available for tourists by way of accommodation. All the rooms from Christmas to New Year have been booked in advance and this includes the resorts on the city outskirts, holiday homes, and guest houses, said C. Narayanagowda, president of Mysore Hotel Owners Association.
He said there may be a few rooms left for those properties with a tie-up with online travel aggregators. Mysuru has about 425 hotels catering to the requirements ranging from standard budget category to those in the luxury segment. The nearly 10,500 rooms have been booked for the duration December 23rd to December 31st.
While most hotels in the city tend to get 80 to 90 per cent occupancy during the year-end holiday season, even the service apartments and new properties emerging along the Outer Ring Road are full this year.
The weekend coupled with Christmas holidays clubbed with government and private sector employees exhausting their leaves make for a long vacation and Mysuru is among the popular destination this year as evident in the response of the hospitality sector.
There were concerns till a few days ago that the tourism sector may be affected by the uptick in the COVID-19 cases but the stakeholders have heaved a sigh of relief that the Government has announced that there would be no curbs for Christmas and New Year.
In a bid to give a boost to the tourism sector, the authorities have also organised a flower show at the Mysuru Palace which is receiving good footfalls and this is accompanied by cultural programmes.
In recent years thanks to improvement in connectivity, a visit to Mysuru does not include the conventional circuit within the city of palace, Chamundi Hills, zoo, St. Philomena’s Church, and Brindavan Gardens alone. Tourists also explore other places around Mysuru that includes Bandipur, Nagarahole, and Kodagu while for some the city is a stop-over for their onward journey to Niligiris and Ooty. Besides, Mysuru is considered great value for money as it also enables tourists to cover historical places including Sriragapatana, Somanathpur and Talakadu.
Besides, the district administration has decided to promote Brand Mysuru in a big way complete with its logo and mascot and this is expected to give a fillip to the tourism sector in the long run.
Tourism is one of the key economic drivers of Mysuru and the sector generates about 80,000 to 100,000 direct employment. Mysuru used to attract nearly 3.5 million tourists every year before the outbreak of COVID-19 and if the present trend continues the footfalls may breach the pre-pandemic levels this year.
