PANJIM: Days after Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar said he is not in favour of Sunburn like Electronic Dance Music festivals (EDMs), Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday categorically stated that his government does not find any reason to object to holding of such events if they are ‘drug-free’.
Emphasising on the need to promote diverse tourism activities in the State, Parrikar said that increasing concentration on beach tourism is giving rise to ‘wrong doings’, which can be avoided if the focus of the trade is diverted to other activities.
“Some festivals though good, have allegations levied that there is free use of drugs. If there are no drugs I don’t see any reason for not holding such events. It should be drug free,” Parrikar said responding to a question on allowing Sunburn EDM in the State, during an interaction organised by a media house.
Earlier this week, the Tourism Minister had said that he was not in favour of Sunburn but instead suggested folk dance and music festival on lines of the EDM.
The Chief Minister said that in the next five years, the tourism inflow in the State will touch 1.2 crore, and is currently touching the 70 lakh mark. “In 2001, when I became the Chief Minister, 13 lakh tourists had visited Goa. During my four year tenure, I touched the figures to 25 lakh,” he said.
“Again in 2012 when I took over it was just 27 lakhs. Now since 2012, it has touched 70 lakh and in the next five year our target is 1.20 crore, as tourism can generate enough income for the State and locals,” he added.
The Chief Minister, however, lamented that the State has not been able to provide the required infrastructure. “Our infrastructure did not grow up at that pace. We need to improve it,” he said.
Parrikar said there is scope to explore various kinds of tourism right from medical tourism, event tourism, eco-tourism, beach tourism religious and heritage tourism, etc.
“Being a small State, there will be always limitation on how much tourist inflow we should have,” he said.
He said that the idea behind bringing IFFI in 2004 to Goa was to promote Goa as event tourism destination and to brand Goa at the international level.
