Team Herald
PANJIM: The 5th biennial Hotelivate State Ranking Survey for tourism, done in association with the World Travel & Tourism Council-India Initiative (WTTC-II), ranked Goa 3rd in the list of top five states in tourism. The national capital Delhi and Maharashtra are at the top two positions, Goa is followed by Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
The survey looked at States from the hospitality industry’s standpoint on 11 parameters – state expenditure on tourism, number of tourist visits, number of branded hotel rooms, Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) per capita, literacy, aircraft movement, ease of doing business, urbanisation, road and rail network, marketing campaigns and some intangible aspects.
Goa is placed among the top three in four parameters – State expenditure on tourism, presence of branded hotel rooms, GSDP per capita and urbanisation.
As per a statement issued by Tourism Department, the report states that Goa has the second-highest density of branded hotel rooms in India, and has been maintaining its rank over the last four surveys.
“Goa being one of India’s foremost leisure destinations, its branded hotel room supply, showed a growth by 14 percent since the last edition of this report. The report states that this it is an indication of the lucrative nature of the market for the hotel industry. As far as State expenditure on tourism, Goa leads the states in terms of tourism spend in 2016-17 with 0.673 percent of its expenditure allocated for travel and tourism. Moving up from rank 3rd to 1st,” states the note.
Under GSDP, Goa, Delhi and Sikkim continue to maintain the top three positions and under urbanisation, Delhi, Goa and Mizoram were ranked at 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar and the Goa Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Nilesh Cabral are elated over the ranking.
