Tourist arrivals to South Karnataka decline

Mysore, May 13: Decline in the number of tourists buses from outside Karnataka since April this year has hit the tourism industry particularly in and around Mysore, a popular tourist distination in the state.

Ever since the state government's decision to hike Entry Tax came into force from April, travel agencies in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have steered clear of Karnataka as each time a 50- seater bus entered the state, the operators would have to cough up a staggering Rs 16,500 as against the earlier Rs 5,900.

Under the revised Entry Tax structure, which came into affect after Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa presented his Budget,each passenger of a 50-seater tourist bus who used to pay around Rs 110, will now have to pay Rs 330 just to enter Karnataka.

This was over and above the fare.

Many tourist buses which started on a trip to Karnataka were reported to have cancelled the programmes after learning about the steep hike from the offices at the various checkposts on the border areas.

Several buses from Kerala do a U turn from the checkpost of Gundlupet each day said a check post official.

Toursim Department officials told UNI that if buses from Kerala stopped coming, the other states would also follow suit. This had dealt a severe blow to the tourism industry in Mysore which was considered as one of the top Tier II cities in the country.

Officials at Mysore Palace, Zoo, Srirangpatna, KRS and other places confirmed that the tourist flow had come down in the last one month. It would go down by 30 to 40 per cent in the coming days.

The Palace Board officials said while 1,95,356 tourists had visited last year in April, it was 1,82,250 this year, a decline of about 13,000.

However, the number of tourists to the century old Mysore Zoo was more or less same of last year (1,78,407). However, the visitors were basically domestic tourists.

The Brindavan Gardens at Krishnaraja Sagar Reservoir near here, which were closed for more then three months from February five following the Cauvery agitation, re-opned only ten days back. Not much flow of tourists was witnessed since then, according to KRS AEE Vijyakumar. The Tourism Department officials justified the hike saying the Entry Tax for tourist vehicles coming into Karnataka was among the lowest in South India. The hike would bring the rates on par with those prevailing rates for buses entering Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

However, Mysore Travel Agents Association was against the state government's 'short sighted' decision. They said the hike could affect the tourism industry not only in Mysore but also in the entire state, this said.

Association General Secretary Ashok appealed to the state to pay proper attention to the Entry Tax component if the tourism industry was to be revived.

A delegation of tourism operators and guides of the city met the Tourism Department officials in a bid to exert pressure on the government to withdraw the increased in the fee.

The other tourist operators of the city also favoured a reciprocal arrangements between states in the South India. The steep hike in the tax did not bode well for the tourism industry as a whole in the state.

Mr Rajesh, who runs a travel agency, said not only tourism in Mysore suffered, even the tour operators in other states, who were earning a livelihood by ferrying tourists to Mysore would be severely hit with many of them are planning to change their business.

In business circles there was a feeling when the Mysore city had been selected under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Mission for the over all development of tourism industry at the cost of Rs 75 crore, this hike would come as a shock to the tourism industry which expected boom period in the coming days.

When Karnataka had introduced the concept of Entry Tax for tourist buses in 1990 during the regime of then Chief Minister S Bangarappa, the tourism industry in Mysore took more then three years to emerge out of the impact of the levy.

UNI