Team Herald
PORVORIM: Wondering why tourism footfalls are dwindling in the State? The answer may lie in the fact that in the Tourism Department anyone and anybody can make it to tourism fairs worldwide to promote tourism irrespective of their experience in the industry.
A Chief Engineer in GTDC project Cell, Pramod Badami, was sent to London for a five-day trip to promote tourism. Interestingly, he has incurred expenses amounting to Rs 2,41,040, which comes from the hard-earned money of the tax-payers.
As per answers submitted in the Assembly, Tourism Department has spent over a crore in travelling allowance for its officials out of the total Rs 1.79 cr by all departments.
The tourism contingents have promoted Goa in London, New York, Chicago, Milan, China, Croatia, Bulgaria, Paris, London, Germany, Portugal, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithunia, Paris, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Israel, Jordan, Spain, Netherlands, Hungary, Russia, Dubai, Czech Republic, Romania since 2017.
Sources in the department reveal there are
officers who travel in rotation to various fairs. “If it is Tourism Department officials for one tour, it would be from Goa Tourism Development Corporation for the next. This is how it goes and the official or staff is selected by the Director or MD, GTDC,” sources reveal.
The expenditure, however, shows hardly any improvement in tourism footfalls. Travel and tourism industry stakeholders have claimed that tourist numbers to Goa, which had attracted more than seven million tourists last season, had dropped considerably this season.
While Tourism Department has claimed that it has not yet tabulated the tourist arrival figures for the year 2018, Travel and Tourism Association of Goa president Savio Messias has said that the dip was as much as 30 per cent, adding that most hotels in the State were under-booked during the festive season, when bookings peak.
TTAG has also demanded a white paper on the foreign travels by the officials and the ministers. In the document submitted to Tourism Minister Manohar (Babu) Azgaonkar, TTAG has demanded an audit of all foreign promotions by Tourism Department.
