Goa's hot?Think again -ToI

Goa's hot?Think again Joaquim Fernandes, TNN | Sep 27, 2012, 07.09AM IST On the celebration of World Tourism Day, realization dawns that for all the fabled beauty of its land and the famously hospitable nature of its people, Goa got only 4.45 lakh foreign tourists of the 1.94 crore tourists that visited India last year. And while India's foreign exchange earnings from tourism are USD16.5 billion, Goa's share in this is just USD 1.5 billion. In the domestic tourism scenario, Goa does not figure in the top 10 states of India. According to the website of the Union ministry of tourism, in 2011, Uttar Pradesh got 155 million domestic tourists, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 153 million and Tamil Nadu with 137 million. Gujarat, in the 10th spot, got 21 million domestic tourists. In India, the domestic tourist visits are 700 million and Goa gets only around 2.6 million domestic tourists in a year. For the record, Goa does not also figure in the union tourism ministry's website for foreign visitors in 2011. It lists Maharashtra as number one (4.8 million), Tamil Nadu (3.3 million) and Delhi (2.1 million) as the top three states. The last three are Kerala, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh, in that order. Comparing Goa, India's smallest state, to the much bigger states may not be fair, but still serves to give a sense of where the state stands in terms of absolute numbers. Now the Goa government is hoping, through new initiatives, to increase the domestic tourist visits to Goa to 6 million a year. In earlier years, successive governments have resorted to lofty proclamations to boost tourism but these have remained lofty proclamations only thanks to filth on beaches and garbage in public places. Now there is a new government in place and Manohar Parrikar has hiked the outlay on tourism from ` 95.43 crore last year to ` 261.30 crore for this year. Goa is also getting sizeable central government assistance for tourism. Whether Parrikar and his men will walk the talk remains to be seen. Tourism minister Dilip Parulekar told TOI that illegalities on the beach, which is the most visible face of Goa to tourists, will not be tolerated any more. "The past government did not care. Recently,we seized three truckloads of beach beds from Baga before the season had begun. A few MLAs rushed to me asking me to release the beach beds. I told them nothing doing," Parulekar said, adding that he will also put stringent conditions on the contractors entrusted with lifting garbage from the beaches. Tourism secretary Mathew Samuel reiterated the need for discipline and regulation. "We need to re-orient our destination and the way we maintain our assets.We have no alternative, otherwise we will be swamped by the very things that we don't want." Pointing out that there is definitely a need for regulating Goa's tourism activity, he hopes "maturity among the stakeholders will come and things will be set right". "There is a voice of people telling us that many of the things are not right. Garbage is a problem and Calangute in peak season suffers from this problem. Ultimately, people will start going away. There is no shortage of good beaches in other places. What is special about Goa is its people and general ambience. You destroy that, you destroy Goa," says Samuel. The Goan tourism industry seems reasonably happy and hopeful. Ralphe de Souza, spokesman for the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) said Goa is doing well as far as numbers are concerned. Even as arrivals from West Europe fell, arrivals from Eastern Europe and the CIS countries increased. "These are cold countries whose citizens did not travel much earlier. Goa and its sunshine have become very popular with them. And they are now filling in the gap caused by the reduction of tourists from Western Europe," said de Souza. The domestic tourism scenario is also good, a c - cording to h i m , and he says that Goa is popular among honeymooners and young e x e c u t ive s . "Y o u n g executives work hard in high pressure industries and find Goa an ideal destination to 'chill out' on long weekends." But in terms of lacuna, de Souza echoes the views held by many. He said that Goa still lacks infrastructure to attract high-spending tourists. "Goa needs a conference-cum-exhibition centre with a capacity of not less than 5,000. The centre should be away from the cities. It should be a standalone project and will help Goa capture the MICE market," he said. But hope floats. He cited two reasons to be happy. There are two changes happening soon in Goa. One is a new, dedicated cruise liner berth, which is about to be commissioned at the Mormugoa port in December. It has a capacity to dock the world's largest cruise liners, but tourism service providers have to be ready to cash in on the opportunities. Cruise liners dock for not more then 48 hours at a place and within that span of time, tourists have to be showered with whatever tourism services the state has to offer. The second change is that the government of India has selected four metropolitan airports of Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkotta and Delhi to issue visa-on-arrival to tourists from 13 countries. Goa has asked that Dabolim be added to that list. The central government is considering the request. One reason for the delay in granting the request is that earlier immigration at Dabolim was handled by the Goa Police while the above facility needs the Bureau of Immigration to handle the activity. The Bureau of Immigration is about to start operations at Dabolim. The authorities are also waiting for the new terminal to begin around March next year. In all likelihood, Goa will then get the facility. India is also considering granting similar visa-on-arrival benefits to citizens of another 13 countries. "With the prospect of tourists from 26 countries getting visas on arrival in Goa, things are looking very good," de Souza signs off. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Goas-hotThink-again/articleshow/16566647.cms