The New Year’s Eve holiday season has helped revive the sagging fortunes of the tourism industry in Mysuru, which was hit by the wave of countrywide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act earlier this month.
Barely a week after recording a dip in tourist arrivals, Mysuru’s hotel industry appears poised to achieve a near-full occupancy rate.
In the third week of December this year when protests were held against the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC), there was not just a fall in tourist arrivals in Mysuru, there were also many cancellation of bookings. “About 30 per cent of the bookings were cancelled”, said Mysuru Hotel Owners’ Association President Narayan Gowda.
But, a turnaround in the fortunes of tourism industry became apparent when tourist arrivals suddenly increased over the last weekend.
“Booking of rooms in the city has now picked up and the occupancy rates stands between 80 and 90 per cent. We are hopeful of reaching near full occupancy for the New Year’s Eve”, Mr. Gowda said. “A majority of the bookings are walk-ins with customers booking the rooms in person and not online”, he said.
A reflection of the spurt in tourist arrival over the weekend was seen in the large crowds of people turning up at the palace, zoo and Brindavan Gardens, the main tourist attractions of visitors to Mysuru.
However, not all hotel owners appeared satisfied. Rodrigues, who runs a hotel on KRS Main road on the outskirts of the city, said the tourist arrivals this year continue to be 30 per cent less compared to last year.
“We had very poor booking during the third week of December this year. We actually look forward to this holiday season for the entire year to make up for the poor occupancy in the rest of year”, he said while claiming his place was not yet fully booked this year for New Year holiday season.
Many hotels have rolled out elaborate programmes for New Year holidayers by arranging DJ music, games, unlimited snacks and food, besides breakfast the next morning.
More rooms
The number of rooms in Mysuru too has gone up substantially over a period of time. “There are plenty of rooms in Mysuru now. Apart from hotel rooms, several houses and apartments are available on Online Travel Aggregator (OTA) platforms”, he said.
A few hotels in Mysuru are also having disputes with Online Travel Aggregators over payment and settlement of dues. In view of the outstanding issues, tourists are unable to book accommodation online. “That is one of the reasons for an increase in tourists walking in and booking hotel rooms physically this year”, said Mr. Narayan Gowda.
