Panaji: A group of Goa’s young minds comprising an hospitality entrepreneur covered 5,000 kilometres of distance by road covering five states in 18 days to bust a myth around tourism during COVID-19.
The group led by Basuri Desai, who owns unique eco-resort “The Earthen Nest” at Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary, travelled for 18 days in October in the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka and Maharashtra by road.
“We wanted to prove a point that if you follow all the SOPs, travelling is safe during COVID-19 outbreak,” he said.
The other group members included Vishwesh Prabhudesai, Mohit Desai, Ruchika Dalvi and Kritika Dalvi.
Basuri said that they did not encounter any problems during their travelling as all the states have put up their SOPs in place.
“The only place where we were rejected e-pass by district collector was to go to Ooty because of the rise in cases there. Nilgiri District magistrate refused the pass,” he said, adding that the stoppage of flow of people at certain point is wise decision to control the virus.
“We had no issues in getting e-passes in places like Dindigul in Tamil Nadu where e-pass was issued within 5 to 10 minutes,” he said.
The group which reached Goa on Thursday got themselves tested for the infection and were negative. “But still, we have decided to go for self quarantine for seven days,” Basuri said.
