The government botanical garden alone recorded a footfall of 10,223 on Sunday
UDHAGAMANDALAM: Ooty once again came alive after a nine month gap this Christmas weekend, when more than 26,000 visitors thronged the hill retreat. Hotels in the hill town also saw 100% of occupancy in the past three days. However, hoteliers could not entertain the guests with Christmas celebrations because of the Covid-19 restrictions that are in place.
The government botanical garden alone recorded a footfall of 10,223 on Sunday, compared to 6,713 and 9,849 on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Shiva Subramaniam Samraj, joint director, horticulture department, said the garden was closed for the public in the last week of March when the lockdown was announced to contain Covid-19 spread. “While the park was reopened in September, it didn’t draw much crowd initially. Inflow of tourists started to increase gradually after the relaxation of e-pass system. The footfall crossed the 10,000-mark for the f