For the past four days, the hill station has been witnessing huge crowd, thanks to the Christmas vacation.
Over 30,000 tourists visited the Government Botanical Garden during the last four days. On Christmas day, around 10,000 footfalls were recorded in the Queen of Hills and the figure was 8,500 on Monday, 8,300 on Sunday and 6,800 on Saturday.
Other famous tourist attractions such as the Rose Garden, Boat House and Doddabetta also drew good crowd. By New Year the figure is expected to increase manifold.
An official at the botanical garden said, “We received tourists from neighbouring districts like Coimbatore, Tirupur, Erode and Salem and also from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, besides foreigners. The rush was satisfactory this winter because last year the turnout from Kerala was less due to Mullaiperiyar row”.
Hoteliers and tour operators are boyant over the rise in tourist arrivals. The tourism related business, which had been witnessed a fall last month, is picking up now.
Moreover, winter cold is not that severe like in the past years, which has come as boon to both visitors and those involved in tourism business.