Shadow descends over Kodagu tourism

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

A pall of gloom has come down on the Kodagu locals as the hilly terrain is set to experience a drop in visitor inflow this year as floods have caused many cancellations.

Also, the district majorly depends on tourism from tour operators, hotels, resorts and homestays as the sector creates employment as well as income in addition to being engaged in plantations. Tour agencies and operators operating in Bengaluru have also been impacted because oflandslides and floods in Kodagu district.

“100% of bookings have been cancelled from Bengaluru towards destinations like Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Wayanad and other affected areas due to floods. We have thus made an appeal to the finance ministry to waive off toll prices as the roads are not functional. In addition to this, we are also planning to make a request to the Centre to relieve tour operators from paying tax this month,” said Radhakrishna Holla, General Secretary, Bangalore Tourist Taxi Owners Association.

“We have experienced 80% cancellation of bookings over the past 3-4 days and thus have incurred a huge loss. Last year, for almost 2-3 months post-floods, we didn’t have any bookings. We are hoping for rains to stop pouring by August 18, thereby expecting tourism to scale up at least by the holiday months of October to December. If not, we would have to wait until the following summer break for bookings to resume on a large scale.” said GR Kiran Kumar, Manager of Mayura Valley View KSTDC property in Madikeri.

KSTDC’s property in Bhagamandala has been closed for a week because of flooding of roads. Road connectivity to Bhagamandala and Talacauvery was completely closed down as the floods on roads went as high as six feet. Also, network coverage and power supply was hit, making it even more difficult for customers to contact, said Prakash, Manager, Hotel Mayura Kauvery, KSTDC property in Bhagamandala.

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• Kodagu sees decline in tourism after natural calamities