Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa Tourism’s expensive junkets to foreign countries appear unending, as after a rather controversial trip to United States of America, another delegation of government officials flew to Finland on Saturday.
Reliable government sources reveal that Tourism Department is unfazed about the controversy surrounding the so-called promotional tours to different nations. In just over two months, the cash-strapped Goa government has cleared trips to Berlin (Germany), Australia, US and now Finland. Some of these trips under Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar also saw more non-tourism related officials and family members flying abroad. Interestingly, barely any of these trips have seen travel agents, who are a crucial part of the marketing strategy abroad.
While Azgaonkar’s team is on a travelling spree,
former Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar’s trips to at least 18 international destinations alone had cost the State exchequer around Rs 28.50 lakh from 2013 to 2017. Parulekar, accompanied by a host of tourism officials, made 11 foreign trips to attend international marts and road shows during this period. However, he did not participate in a single event promoting Goa anywhere within the country.
Tourism Department, that came under severe criticism over frequent trips, particularly to foreign countries for promotional activities, also spent a whopping Rs 1.62 crore of public funds from 2013-14 to 2016-17 for travel, accommodation and daily expenses of the teams that included the former minister, Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) Chairman Nilesh Cabral, former tourism director Ameya Abhyankar, former GTDC MD Nikhil Desai, GTDC PRO Deepak Narvekar and others. Some of the foreign locations visited by Parulekar during the promotional events included Berlin, Dubai, London, Los Angeles, Istanbul, Washington, New York, Spain, Poland and Australia.
The amount spent on travel and accommodation was the highest at Rs 49.28 lakh approx in 2014-15. The government also spent over Rs 45 lakh in 2013-14, around Rs 49.28 lakh in 2014-15, Rs 40.17 lakh and Rs 12.27 lakh approximately in 2015-16 and 2016-17 respectively on travel and accommodation towards the government representatives at international marts and roads shows, while the DA came to around Rs 37.80 lakh during the same period.
Cabral was the only one among those who participated in the tours who did not claim TA/DA for the event at Moscow in September 2015.
In 2012 when the BJP-led government was formed, Tourism Department had organised trips to Katmandu, St Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Lisbon, Paris, Singapore, Hungary and other places to take part in exhibitions and road shows.
On the other hand, domestic exhibitions and road shows at various cities in the country from 2013-14 to 2016-17 saw the government spending over Rs 18 lakh for TA/DA.
The trips abroad have not helped in increasing tourist footfalls as arrivals have seen just a marginal increase in subsequent years. Moreover, tourists from many of the countries do not have Goa on their visit list, but trips to these nations continue annually.
++
While nation opts for digital marketing, Goa plums for personal visits
While Goa Tourism takes off on foreign trips to increase arrivals in the State, the Union Tourism Ministry has decided to shut its offices in seven out of 14 foreign cities including Paris, Amsterdam, Toronto, Milan, Sydney, Johannesburg and Los Angeles.
The reason being poor response from these places despite the Centre spending Rs 4-5 crore every year. Another reason is attributed to the increasing use of digital media. The Internet and social media has expanded the scope of reaching out to the people rather than personal visits. However, in Goa it appears to be otherwise.
