PANJIM: The presence of majority of government appointees on the Goa Tourism Board is not a welcome sign with the State’s largest umbrella of travel and tourism sectors flaying the manner in which the Pramod Sawant-led government has formed the Board.
While the sitting President of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) Nilesh Shah is contented over implementation of the long-delayed demand; he pointed out to the government appointees on the Board. “The Tourism Board will not be industry driven and the CEO is also a government appointee, not a professional as requested,” he said, comment published by Herald first on Thursday.
Immediate past TTAG President Savio Messias has also raised concern over by and large the absence of tourism experts while equating the appointment to municipalities/panchayats.
“It is fully loaded with government bureaucrats and government appointees. You may have an excellent policy but if the board has no tourism experts but instead some political appointees; it would be a very ordinary body like most other bodies. We have 12 government appointees and only 5 stakeholders, out of which 3 will have tenure of just one year. It sounds more like our municipalities and panchayats that have a rotation policy,” he said speaking to Herald.
Messias added that if the government believes in rotation policy, the post of Chairman should also be rotated among the ministers.
Unlike Goa, its biggest tourism competitor Kerala has Tourism Boards comprising only experts in the field.
Ex-TTAG President Francisco Braganca has called the Tourism Board as a creation of another tourism department and Goa Tourism Development Corporation, in the wake of government taking a large share of the Board.
The shack operators, on the other hand, have urged to include them on to the Board. President of Shack Owners Welfare Society Cruz Cardozo said they will make a representation to the government to include one shack operator from each district on Tourism Board. “Like other stakeholders, we also want to have our representation… Shack operators in both districts have different issues and including us will give us a platform to bring to the fore our issues,” he said.
Another traditional shack operator sought the appointment of at least one representative from each stakeholder on the Tourism Board.
Meanwhile, Herald has learnt that the final approved policy is expected to be released next week.
