Govt hires PR firm to promote brand Goa

February 14, 2013 TEAM HERALD PANJIM: The State government has for the first time decided to hire a public relations company to promote brand Goa. Interestingly, the agency chosen for the purpose ~ Adfactors PR, which was given the PR contract for the Carnival and Food and Cultural Festival, has been chosen from among six companies who participated in the bids. Defending the choice, Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said, “If the recently concluded Food and Cultural Festival and Carnival have been a success, it is due to Adfactors PR”. Adfactors PR which claims to be India’s biggest and leading PR agency has been given the responsibility to handle Goa tourism promotion for five years starting March 2013. The tourism ministry will pay around Rs 7 lakh per month to the PR agency. According to sources, Adfactors will exclusively handle the promotional and publicity of the Department through a four-member team. “They will track every aspect of Goa tourism that is reported in the media whether print, electronic, on-line, blogs and advertising,” said a top official in the Department. The agency will also do crisis management and image building of Goa and will have to prepare a database, manage the tourism ministry’s websites, and have a newsletter that reaches out to at least 50,000 recipients. It has to provide support to the tourism ministry during events, festivals, road shows organised in India and abroad and handle all kinds of tourism related activities of the Tourism Department and Goa Tourism Development Corporation. The ministry justified this deal on the grounds that the agency will use every media mode to boost Goa’s image, claiming that this would otherwise cost the government more than Rs 3 to Rs 4 crore a month on advertising and promotion. Officials say that the appointment of a PR agency and preparation of a Master Plan, tourism policy and re-designing of Brand Goa will go a long way in giving Goa Tourism its place in the sun in the competitive tourism market. Reacting to the development, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) chief Francis Braganza said, “The State government has done the best thing for Goa tourism by selecting the finest PR agency in the country.” “Goa’s PR is in good hands and we have seen the effect already on Carnival and the food festival,” he said. http://www.heraldgoa.in/News/Main%20Page%20News/Govt-hires-PR-firm-to-promote-brand-Goa/70714.html