KARSTEN MIRANDA
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PANJIM: Various stakeholders held a brainstorming session with the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) with the aim of finding ways to present the capital city as a tourism destination and promote its rich heritage and culture.
Following a consolidated effort between the Goa Chamber of Commerce & Industry (GCCI) and Goa Heritage Action Group (GHAG), Panjim Mayor Rohit Monserrate invited the two groups as well as companies in the tourism sector such as ‘Exclamations’, ‘Make It Happen’, ‘Soul Travelling’ and ‘Cholta Cholta’ that organise walking tours and curate ‘experience activities’.
“It’s good to see change being promoted on ground in Panjim, a city we all love. It’s a great beginning – involving stakeholders representing the industry and especially ‘experiential tourism’ to contribute in planning with certain aspects of the city and also to handle any related issues. The best thing is that these discussions are happening and the ideas are being encouraged,” said Varun Hegde, founder of ‘Soul Travelling’.
“Following the meeting we conducted a Heritage Walk in the Latin Quarters. Post that, all stakeholders jointly came up with the problem areas like clean washrooms, signages, wheelchair accessibility, pavement restoration and street lighting. We are currently working on creating a detailed development plan,” said Maria Victor, founder of ‘Make It Happen’.
While the heritage walk helped assess the reality of the situation and what all needs to be done, there were also suggestions regarding long-term planning too.
“There was another discussion of how to use unutilized spaces of Panjim like parks and add some life to it in the evenings or night by having smaller festivals/markets throughout the year that would be organised by businesses in the tourism trade, with the help of CCP. The idea is to get the locals involved,” said Aakash Madgavkar, who is the Co-Chair of GCCI’s new Tourism Committee.
Jack Sukhija, Chairman of this GCCI’s committee was also present for the meeting and the heritage tour.
Heta Pandit, Vice Chairman of the GHAG, the group that pioneered walking tours and history tours in Goa shared her reaction about the outcome of the meeting.
“Yes, we’re optimistic as always. We have always worked with the authorities. We’re very excited that all the walking tour companies have got together for the first time and presented the CCP Mayor with a few infrastructure related issues to make the walking tour in Panjim a more enjoyable experience,” said Heta.
“We are glad to have the support of CCP in improving the infrastructure in heritage zones. During the meeting, we shared our suggestions on making the city tourism friendly in a sustainable way, with an emphasis on promoting heritage. It is great to see Heritage tourism making its way to the forefront and through the power of collaboration, the future looks promising, added Maria.
“We want people to know the city for what it is – all the stories around it and the best places to explore – with tourism in its best form. It’s an ideal city of sorts. It’s definitely possible if we all work together. We are having meetings regularly to make sure we work on different ideas and then share it across with the CCP and get them implemented,” Varun added.
Mayor was very receptive towards all the ideas and suggestions put forth.
“The Mayor has asked us to make a proper representation of what needs to be done and then he will see what can be done from the CCP side to make Panjim come alive again. We will be giving these representations in parts, which would cover various aspects,” said Aakash.
