Record turnout of visitors at Kumari boathouse

MADURAI: Scores of tourists flocked around various spots in Madurai and some other districts in the southern region on the New Year day. Several parts of Kodaikanal were crowded with vacationing travellers. Many people touring by their own vehicles and taxis had a different experience as they crawled through maddening traffic on the hills.

On the other side, Kanniyakumari, the southernmost tip of India and sacred spot, where three oceans meet attracted a large number of tourists during this holiday season.

Apart from watching the sunrise, tourists also thronged Kanniyakumari boathouse, which attracted an unusually good turnout on New Year day. It’s peak time for tourists through Tamil calendar months of ‘Karthigai’, ‘Margazhi’ and ‘Thai’ in this coastal Kanniyakumari district. With as many as 11,700 passengers, three ferryboats sailed to the Vivekananda Rock and Thiruvalluvar statue from the shoreline to sea on Sunday. The turnout in the famed boathouse was one of the highest in recent history, especially post COVID.

Over the last 10 days, the passenger turnout was above 10,000 on a daily average. Normally during off season, the daily turnout is roughly about 3,000 to 5,000 and at peak season it goes up to 10,000 daily. If two more ferryboats were inducted, it would attract more tourists and also fetch a major revenue for the government, sources said.