Summer tourism reaches its peak in Kodaikanal

MADURAI: It is high season for tourists in Kodaikanal, a popular hill station in Dindigul district.

When summer is at its peak, many travel up the Kodai Hills as it’s one of their best ways to beat the heat on stifling summer days. Now, several hill town streets are chock full of tourists enjoying their time in the seasonal spotlight.

Pleasure boating, a major component in the tourism sector, has been a bright spot in contributing to the local economy of Kodaikanal. “The boathouse maintained by the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation has a fleet of 125 boats,” sources revealed.

This year, various tourism hotspots in Kodaikanal attracted visitors in advance since the last holiday weekend. It experienced a similar trend this weekend which included the Tamil New Year holiday, Vetrivel, an authorised tourist guide in Kodaikanal told DT Next on Sunday.

There could be an even more huge influx of tourists from April 20 onwards due to school summer vacations. “It requires a minimum of three days for the visitors to go through an ultimate tour including sightseeing trips, eco-tourism, forest tourism, agriculture and rural tourism, and other ways to explore the best waterfalls including the ‘Bear Shola Falls’,” he said.

Now, the authorities are promoting tourism at ‘Anju Veedu waterfalls’ and the tourists could spend their time trekking. “However, it’s risky at times while crossing a river at this new locale. Hence, tourists need to be guided properly before getting access to this spot,” he said.

At present, tourism dominates, particularly in the Mannavanur Lake area, which is about 22 km away from the Kodaikanal centre. Much to the delight of everyone, the lake offers coracle rides.

Since the roads leading to conventional tourism spots such as ‘Pillar Rocks’, ‘Moir Point’, ‘Guna Caves’ and other significant viewpoints were jam-packed, many cab drivers were taking the tourists to other sightseeing avenues in rural areas including Poomparai, Vadakavunji, and Mannavanur through a traffic-free road.

Now, the holidaymakers could also enjoy access to Berijam Lake, but Prakash from Madurai expressed unease about charging exorbitant money on lodging and food, capitalising on the season. All hotels and lodges should display tariff structure to ensure transparency and a team needs to be formed to check overcharging.

Another tourist Thomas Varghese from Kerala said exact staying hours from the check-in time were not properly mentioned while booking online. It needs to be checked by authorities concerned to prevent fleecing the tourists.

Michael Sundaram, a tourism industry stakeholder, said Food Safety Officers have a primary role to check hotels and restaurants to find whether quality standards were effectively maintained to ensure good health for the comfort of tourists.