Nilgiris experienced drop in number of visitors during 2018

The Nilgiri Mountains, one of the popular tourist destinations in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu, witnessed drop in number of visitors in 2018. There is around 10 per cent decline in the number of tourists, when compared to the previous year. The main reason of the drop is said to be the factors affected the neighbouring states – Kerala and Karnataka in 2018.

As per the information provided by the officials of the Horticulture Department around 31 lakh people had visited the Government Botanical Garden in 2017-2018, the numbers fell to 28.69 lakh during 2018-2019. The Tourism Department estimates the total number of visitors to Nilgiri based on the visitors in the Botanical Garden, since the visitors of Nilgiri would not spare the Botanical Garden during their visit.

Botanical Garden

The factors those have caused the drop in tourists numbers were assumed to be the flood in Kerala during August and the recent elections in Karnataka. The number of tourists from Kerala and Karnataka has fallen considerably during those periods.

The official from Horticulture Department stated that, ‘factors beyond the control of anyone’ have affected the tourism sector last year.

The number of visitors has reported to be picked up during the last days of the year, with huge crowds visiting the sites, especially in Christmas time.

Horticulture Department officials said that lots of face-lifting works have carried out in the botanical garden in order to attract more visitors.

“The glass house in the botanical garden has renovated with a project cost of Rs 2 crore,” said the official.