Panaji: Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte told the House that the state government is working on a scheme on airlines incentives to the countries or companies that bring in high end international tourists.
He also said that all the hotels and guest houses in the state will have to compulsorily upload the data of guests on TIME (tourism information management enterprises) software from April 1, 2025 onwards.
Khaunte was responding to a question tabled by Revolutionary Goans party MLA Viresh Borkar, which had other MLAs including Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, AAP MLA Venzy Viegas asking the supplementary questions.
In an elaborate reply to the question, Khaunte said that the state tourism department was “thinking forward.”
“The trend of visitors have changed and accordingly we have to change that is why we are promoting the concept of Goa beyond beaches,” he said.
The minister said that the department is working on to have global outreach catching on the international trends.
Khaunte said that the department wants to introduce Airlines Incentives scheme which will be applicable only to those countries or (airlines) companies that bring in high spending international tourists.
He also said that the department is trying to enhance tourism sector through direct flight connectivity.
“Goa is a home for two airports that provides good connectivity to the travellers. We want more FTAs (Foreign Tourist Arrivals) in the state,” Khaunte said.
The minister said that recently they had met Union Civil Aviation Minister (Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu) during which the need to explore possibilities of open sky policy.
He said that the state government is already working with the centre to implement e-visa policy in the state.
Responding to a question by Borkar over the data of tourists spending in the state, Khaunte said that from April 01, 2025 onwards, all the hotels and guest houses will have to compulsorily load the information about tourists on TIME software.
He said that the department has been requesting the hotels and gues t houses to do the same for last two years, but now it would be made mandatory.
Pointing out to the negative campaign on Goa tourism that was run during the last year, Khaunte said that the factual position was different in the coastal state.
“There was narratives created about the decline in tourism in Goa but if you go through the data of October, November and December (2024), we had hundred per cent occupancy in the hotels,” he commented.
The minister said that considering the room tariffs and the rate at which they were booked, the department was sure that the trend of quality over quantity in Goa tourism has started.
He said that the domestic tourist arrival was high by 22 per cent last year while there was rise by three per cent in international arrivals.
Khaunte told the House that all this while Goa was depending on only two countries — UK and Russia — for international tourist arrivals.
“But we today we are talking about Poland, Kazakisthan, Kyrgyzstan and other countries from where the tourists are arriving,” he added.
