Mysuru: It’s election time and it’s also time for a break for many domestic tourists looking for a respite from the searing summer heat with the four-day holiday period from Thursday to Monday providing the ideal opportunity to them to visit the City of Palaces Mysuru.
At Mysuru Zoo, there were 9,068 visitors on Thursday. The zoo usually sees around 5,000 visitors on weekdays which crosses 10,000 during the weekends and on holidays.
Also, 65 percent of hotel rooms in the city were found filled on Thursday night and 85 percent of them were domestic tourists, according to Mysuru hotel owners association head Mr C Narayangowda. He claimed that hotel owners had given rooms to tourists only after confirming that they had voted on Thursday.
On Friday too, the occupancy of hotel rooms in Mysuru was 80 percent and for the next two days 80 percent of the rooms are already booked, he said. According to him, on Thursday, as many as 75 hotels in Mysuru provided 50 percent discount (in food) to 12,882 first time voters who have completed 18 years. Five hotels provided 20-30 percent (in food) to 122 senior citizens. And 23 hotels offered 30-35 percent discount to senior citizens who had come to Mysuru after voting, but no one made use of the discount, Mr Narayangowda said.
