It’s Dasara bonanza for Mysuru zoo as the turnout of visitors was impressive when the city hosted the 10-day festivities which concluded on Tuesday.
In the last two days of Navaratri festivities – on the day of Ayudha Puja and Vijayadashami – the zoo attracted 28,287 and 23,890 visitors, respectively. In total, 1,65,003 tourists visited the zoo during the celebrations.
The Mysuru zoo happens to be one of the prominent and famous tourist destinations in the city. The footfall that was attracted during this year’s festivities was the highest post-pandemic.
During last year’s festivities, the zoo attracted 1,55,588 visitors while the number of visitors in 2021 Dasara was 75,251. The lowest number of visitors was in 2020 when the zoo attracted just 20,217 – perhaps the lowest in recent history of the zoo during the festivities. Almost the entire 2020, which was hit by COVID-19, the zoo remained closed because of the lockdown. The zoo did not attract many footfall in the pandemic-hit year even after it was reopened, and there was a financial crisis with a sharp drop in its gate collections.
The break-up of the zoo visitors between October 15 and 24, 2023 is like this – 16,600 (October 15), 10,145 (October 16), 8,599 (October 17), 10,603 (October 18), 11,098 (October 19), 11,280 (October 20), 16,895 (October 21), 25,180 (October 22), 28,287 (October 23), and 23,890 (October 24).
When compared to last year, the number of footfall was more during Vijayadashami. In 2022, 36,013 tourists were attracted while the number of visitors on the day of Ayudha Puja last year was 22,909.
Surprisingly, despite the fear of pandemic still remaining, the visitors in 2021 on the day of Vijayadashami were more than this year. In 2021, 27,093 tourists visited the zoo on the day of Vijayadashami. The lowest was in 2020 when only 7,264 visitors were attracted during Vijayadashami.
