MYSORE: The much-publicised Atithi concept seems to have very few takers in Mysore as the Tourism Department has received only six applications from potential home stay providers.

Introduced to involve citizens and make them stakeholders in the tourism sector that is witnessing a boom, Atithi was officially launched in the city by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation two years ago during Dasara.

While only 14 applications were received when the concept was launched almost two years ago, the number did not increase during the last Dasara either.

However, the concept has evoked tremendous response in Kodagu and there are more than 800 home stay facilities in the district. An entrepreneur has also published a directory of home stay providers for tourists.

A solution

Home stay is also reckoned to be the solution to meet the imminent shortage of rooms that is likely to be witnessed in major tourism centres such as Mysore. A survey on domestic tourism conducted by the Department of Tourism, Government of India, ranked Mysore among the five most popular destinations in the country. The number of tourists visiting Mysore is also on the rise. It is evident from the increase in number of visitors to places of tourist interest such as the palace that was visited by 20,62,994 tourists in 2005 as against 18.31 lakhs in 2004, 16.45 lakhs in 2003 and 14.19 lakhs in 2002.

These figures are expected to increase and the survey on domestic tourism scenario indicated that 230 million trips were undertaken by domestic tourists during 2002. Karnataka was ranked among the top five States according to their relative share in total trips undertaken by domestic tourists.

Karnataka also had the highest percentage of business tourists and leisure and holiday tourists and the southern States accounted for the highest share of business and holiday tourists. The total number of domestic tourists during 2002 was pegged at a staggering 272 million.

Yet another survey on tourism sector conducted on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism pointed to an acute shortage of rooms.

The survey was conducted across the nation and stressed the need to expand accommodation if the present boom was to be sustained.

It indicated that there were 298 rooms for every one lakh tourist visiting the city. The total number of hotel rooms in the country should be about 6.2 million by 2020 if the full potential of tourism had to be realised. The present availability is estimated to be 1.2 million rooms and hence Atithi is reckoned to be a solution.

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