Buoyancy in tourism flow during May has brought the focus back on the imperatives of improved connectivity and the need to tap international tourists keep the industry afloat.
The hospitality sector which bears the brunt of any lull in tourism has argued for improved flight connectivity to places of tourist interest instead of Bengaluru.
The Hotel and Restaurant Owners’ Association has said that flights should be regular and reliable and not a one-off affair.
Narayan Gowda, president of the association, said that instead of Bengaluru, the authorities should try to connect Mysuru with Goa and Kochi so that tourists visiting those places also include Mysuru in their itinerary.
The suggestion stems from a growing realisation that tourism sector in Mysuru is kept afloat by domestic travellers and there are very few international tourists visiting Mysuru.
Statistics based on the visits to the Mysuru palace indicate that their numbers are less than 10 per cent of the total tourists visiting the region. The other issues to expand tourism pertain to promoting Mysuru as a base to explore other places of interest like Belur, Halebidu, Shravanabelagola, Kodagu, Bandipur, Nagarahole, besides Ooty and Wayanad.
“At present this is not the case and almost 50 per cent of the tourists visiting Mysuru return to their respective destinations the same day,” according to Mr. Gowda.
There is also a growing realisation that Mysuru failed to generate adequate traffic from the corporate sector but this cannot change unless the industrial climate in the region changed rapidly.
The other alternative was to promote Mysuru as a MICE (Meetings Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) destination which would require additional infrastructure besides flight connectivity.
