KARWAR: Bengalureans Ellidirappa? On the silken coasts of Gokarna, Murdeshwar, Karwar and Goa. In the hills of Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru.
Little wonder that the three Lok Sabha seats in Bengaluru clocked an average of 50% voting on Thursday, attracting criticism from various quarters. While a direct link between the holidayers and low percentage may not be tenable, the spike in tourism tells its own story of the long Easter weekend and indifferent voters.
Since Wednesday, there has been a influx of people from Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka in these tourist destinations, which were dotted with vehicles bearing Bengaluru registration numbers.
A hotelier in Gokarna said a good crowd from Bengaluru began coming in on Wednesday. “People from Kerala too have come down in large numbers. As it’s a long weekend, people began their holiday on Wednesday itself. This weekend is going to be crowded in many parts of Uttara Kannada,” he said.
Manjunath Naik, a travel agent in Murdeshwar, said the five-day holiday is attracting more tourists to coastal towns. “There were good bookings on Wednesday and tourists also went to Goa on the same day. There are many bookings from Friday to Sunday.”
“The voting percentage and tourist influx in coastal towns may not be linked. But we do have many bookings from Bengaluru from Friday,” said a resort owner in Karwar.
Dandeli, however, did not attract any tourists on Thursday, when 14 constituencies went to polls in Karnataka.