Parulekar admits fall in foreign tourist arrivals in December -Herald

January 30, 2013 PANJIM: Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar has admitted that there was a drop in foreign tourist arrivals during the peak December season, which he said was partially due to visa restrictions imposed by Central government. The minister however projected an overall increase in both domestic and foreign arrivals for the 2012-13 season, in comparison to the previous year. In a written reply to the Goa Assembly Tuesday, the tourism ministry pointed out that there was a marginal decrease in foreign tourist arrivals in the month of December 2012, due to restrictive visa procedure such as two month cooling period imposed by the Central government. That there was no visa on arrival facility at Goa airport which was another reason cited for the downturn in arrivals. The minister listed out other reasons citing relatively high hotel tariff in Goa in December 2012, increase in royalty imposed by Airports Authority of India and resultant cancellation of some charter flights as other reasons for the drop in foreign tourists. The economic recession in Europe had also led to cancellation of holidays and travel plans to Goa. However despite all this, in another written reply to the Goa Assembly the tourism minister states that overall domestic and foreign tourist arrivals have increased this year in comparison to last year. “We anticipate growth on arrival of total foreign and domestic tourists,” said Tourism minister Dilip Parulekar. The question were raised by Dabolim MLA Mauvin Godinho and Calangute MLA Michael Lobo. Parulekar also spelt out measures such as engagement of the world’s best consultancy services to formulate a new tourism policy document and a comprehensive tourism development Master Plan to boost increase in flow of tourists. Likewise the tourism ministry plans to have empanelment of project management consultants for development of properties of the department of tourism and GTDC in addition to infrastructure development and tourism promotion strategies through print and electronic modes. http://www.epaperoheraldo.in/indexadv.aspx