TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Goa government has said it is trying to involve the Church in the entire publicity campaign around the exposition of relics of St Francis Xavier only after they know what quantum of tourists would be arriving here.
“The event is an excuse to get more tourists to Goa. We will be marketing this event in Europe so that more tourists from this continent come here. This will help us get more tourists,” said Nilesh Cabral, Chairman, Goa Tourism Development Corporation, participating in the Discussion @ HCN on HCN channel which was aired last night.
Sanjiv Mendes, member on the tourism department’s marketing and promotion committee and NCP spokesman Trajano D’Mello were the other panelists at the discussion.
While Cabral and Mendes supported the Rs four-crore controversial publicity campaign, D’Mello said that entire campaign smacked of fraud. “If you look at it, the entire campaign smells of a fraud. If the campaign has to be undertaken, they should take the Church into confidence. The church should prepare the publicity roadmap,” he said, adding that if government gets involved in this kind of event, it would open pandora’s box to support all religious functions.
Supporting the campaign, Mendes said that Sri Lanka publicises its unique event of relics of tooth of Buddha across the globe, where lakhs of people come down to witness the event. “Here we have entire body and we are not publicizing it,” he said. “This event can help us to promote the state’s tourism beyond beaches,” he said.
Cabral said that when an event like kumbh mela can attract millions of tourists, there is nothing in promoting the event which can increase the number of tourist arrivals in Goa. Supporting him, Mendes said that this is entirely a promotion of event. “Church’s role will come only when we finalise what
we are going to get from Europe,” he said.
