PANJIM: The government has reviewed the guidelines for operation of tourist charter flights and the state which handles 97% of all charter flights is expected to benefit tremendously. Passengers now travelling in to Goa on a charter flight from Russia or the UK or any other destination can now return on any other airline if they are the same tour operator. More importantly in a major change Indian passport holders can now travel on the charter flight from the point of origin.
Operators can now use the first leg to take passengers out by selling tickets and last flight from origin can bring passengers and send them scheduled flights thus putting an end to the ferry flight concept.
Francisco de Braganca, President TTAG said “it is a boost to the industry in Goa and with the handling now being shifted to any authorized ground handling agent with BCAS approval instead of the high charging Air India which earlier had a monopoly would be very good.” It was also revealed that parking space had been allocated for two slots and the parameters were being worked out with the navy and the relevant department, he said.
Earnest Dias a charter operator based in the state said this would result in prices of packages dropping by 10 to 12 % and could witness a rise in the number of tourists next season.
The new policy has now given a definition as to who is a charter operator, principal tour operator, Indian tour operator and what exactly was an inclusive tour package. An inclusive tour package would mean a package consisting of round trip for a pre determined period and for one or several predetermined places for which an inclusive consolidated price was charged for all the airfare for all the segments, hotel accommodation, airport pick up and drop and other ground arrangements. A charter operator would mean the aircraft operator who is providing its aircraft to the tour operator. The Principle tour operator was the tour operator who enters into a contract with the charter operator for operation of the flights. The Indian tour operator would be based in the country and would be approved by the Min of Tourism as well as cleared from the security angle by the home ministry. He or she would be responsible for making various arrangements for the tourist availing the ITP charter flights.
Responding to a question about the Dhristi life guard imbroglio, Braganca said it was an outsourced service and it would not be right to comment but said that he had heard good things about the job they were doing. He however bemoaned the dirt on the beaches and said the retail trade at the beach had ensured that beer bottles and other bottles were now littering the place. The absence of enforcement he said had resulted in this situation and this was very apparent in the north.
With regards to this tourist season he said Goa was an overrun destination and now the genuine Goan experience was a thing of the past. He said it was a pity in Goa people would go ahead with development before planning anything. He also revealed that 20% FAR had been approved for 4 and 5 star hotels in the state. In addition he said permissions had been given to 10 hotels to expand existing operations or build. One proposal had been kept in abeyance and one rejected.
Bush Miranda MD of Cicerone Air Transport Services said 60% of the hotels in the state were full and he had brought in 67 charter flights last month which meant around 18,000 tourists had visited the state. He said this year the wide bodied aircrafts were coming here. Goa he said was benefitting from the problems in parts of Europe though it was not possible to compete with countries like Turkey which had properties with over 5000 rooms and had rates that Goa could just not match. He was however optimistic and said at the end of the season the numbers would show a growth of 10-12 % over last year.
