TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: In a sluggish tourism scenario, charters from emerging market such as Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, have lit up the faces of tourism stakeholders, with the first charter bringing in 94 passengers to Goa recently.
Trail Blazer India (TBI) Pvt Ltd which has pioneered forays into this market is on a spree to explore new markets for charter tourism to Goa.
For the tourism ministry in Goa this new segment is a welcome development considering the fact that Goa is working tirelessly to promote itself to various countries as a tropical holiday destination.
The COO of TBI Aloo Gomes Pereira told Herald, “We brought in the first charter from Lithuania and we are hoping to see good results from this emerging market within the next two to three years.”
Herald has learnt that close to 40 travel agents from the Baltic States had been flown in to Goa on an FAM trip in January in an effort to package Goa tourism to the Baltic States.
“We do have a few tourists visiting Goa from Estonia which is also a part of the Baltic States,” said Gomes Pereira adding further that the three combined Latvia-Lithuania-Estonia forms an equally important segment for Goa Tourism along with charters from other destinations.
The Baltic States are to the east of the Baltic Sea, and won independence from the USSR in the wake of collapse of Communism. Till date charters from Russia continue to dominate Goa tourism with 469 flights bringing in 1,00,2945 passengers. The second largest tourists come from UK with 104 flights bringing in 30,616 passengers.
While 49 flights from Germany, Finland and Norway together brought in a total of 10,908 passengers, 10 charter flights came from Kazakhstan with 2,323 passengers followed by four flights came from Dubai with 331 tourists.
The tourism ministry agrees that Goa has not seen charters from new markets in a long time and the new arrivals spring new hope.
It is interesting to note that Goa is also organising road shows next month in Riga and Vilnius, the capital cities of Latvia and Lithuania, in addition to a travel mart in Gothenburg to revive the Swedish market.
Gomes Pereira admits that there is a lot of investment that goes into tapping new markets. “It is important to ensure that they have to be kept alive whether FITs, for weddings, MICE or even domestic,” he emphasised.
