‘Jumbo’ Mysuru Dasara: City Records Highest Ever Tourist Numbers During Festival Season

This year’s Mysuru Dasara has been a special one with the city being visited by a record number of tourists, The Hindu has reported.

On Vijayadashami (19 October), the Mysuru zoo attracted 33,301 people and generated a revenue of Rs 25.40 lakh in a single day. In the period of ten days of the festival, a total of 1.53 lakh people visited the zoo and contributed to total revenue of Rs 1.05 crore. If the footfalls in Mysuru Zoo are taken into account, this year’s number of tourists can be considered the highest.

In 2017, the zoo had attracted a revenue of Rs 69.17 lakh from over 1.23 lakh visitors. Considering the numbers of the previous years, 2018 has been very fruitful in terms of tourism for the city and the state.

The tourism industry in Mysuru feels that promotions, if done two months in advance can increase the numbers even further, as travellers like to plan early. These promotions have an impact on foreign travellers in particular.

B S Prashanth, president, Mysuru Travels Association said that the district administration and Tourism Department successfully organised the events. However, the association’s request to extend special illumination of the city till the end of the month was not accepted. Instead, the special lighting was extended for two days.