Tag Archives: Goa Tourism

The award was presented by Diya Kumari Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister and Tourism Minister, Govt of Rajasthan. This award recognizes Goa’s leading role in promoting Regenerative Tourism which focuses on responsible and sustainable practices. Goa’s ‘Ekadasha Teertha’ initiative brings together spirituality, local culture, nationalism and conscious tourism. Goa’s efforts in preserving heritage, organizing vibrant festivals, offering adventure activities, and having world-class facilities for meetings and events were highlighted. This shows Goa’s commitment to sustainability. This award firmly establishes Goa as a leader in Regenerative Tourism. It marks an important achievement for Goa’s tourism industry.

The state government of Goa has announced to build its first wellness destination centre and eco-cottages at Anjunem-Keri. Govt has accepted the proposal of Rane Construction for the development, operations, and maintenance of the property with the vision to promote hinterland tourism.

Goa Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte has launched India’s first regenerative tourism model in the state. He said, “Goa has a rich cultural heritage including some temples known as South Kashi, and 11 spiritual sites in the coastal state would be promoted under the Ekadasha Teertha scheme.”

Goa tourism department has reduced the number of clearances or permissions that trades are required to attach at the time of registration. For a new hotel, an entity can get registration done by submitting three documents such as ownership document, CST registration, if applicable, and an identity proof; while no document needs to be submitted for renewal.

Goa Tourism will be the single window and nodal department for granting permissions to all tourism events, according to new guidelines released by the State Government. Recently, Pramod Sawant, Chief Minister, Goa, had revealed that they are in the process of giving single window clearance for all permissions required for events.

Chief Minister of Goa, Pramod Sawant has said that the cancellation of lights connecting the UK and India will affect tourism in Goa. “Tourism in Goa is dependent for its revival on international tourists, mainly those coming from the UK and Russia, so definitively there will be an impact,” he said.

Goa Tourism might have suffered a loss of around Rs2,000 to Rs7,200 crore and approximately 35-58% job losses because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report titled, ‘Coping with COVID-19: Survival and Revival of Goa’s Tourism Industry’ by Goa Tourism Ministry and KPMG Advisory Services.

Goa Government has announced the Tourism Policy 2020 and Tourism Master Plan. The license fee for beach shacks has been reduced by 50%. Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar said under the tourism policy, a tourism board would be constituted having experts from various fields. The required infrastructure would be developed on the Public-Private Partnership mode to develop tourism in the state.

The Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), Government of Goa has started work on getting all its tourism stakeholders under the organised sector. It has outsourced this to Goa Electronics that will do data collection of all tourism stakeholders right from travel agents, tourist guides, taxi drivers as well as hotel owners and bring them on a single platform. Revati Mujumdar, CEO and Executive Director, Goa Electronics, says, “Part of the framework or data structure for collation is already happening. A majority of stakeholders have been brought onto the database.” She also spoke about working on product personalisation for every tourist entering Goa using Artificial Intelligence, but that is a few years down the line. Goa Electronics is associated with GTDC for developing and maintaining its website, its app and the state-owned online hotel bookings.

In a bid to assess the extent of losses, current needs, and proactive measures to be taken in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Goa Tourism in association with KPMG Advisory Services is conducting a state-wide survey among tourism stakeholders including hotels, activity operators, tour and travel services, event organisers, taxi drivers, tourist guides, photographers, and others. The survey will also factor in expectations the sector has of the government. In a statement, the tourism authority said that the hospitality industry in the state has been hit the most due to the pandemic. All the stakeholders can access the survey at http://goa-tourism.com/covid19survey. The data, as per the statement, will remain fully confidential. For the sake of data security, you will be required to use an OTP. Goa Tourism said that the opinions of stakeholders would be helpful in developing a suitable strategy to revive tourism in the state and collectively come out stronger from this crisis.