PANJIM: Foreign tourists arriving by charter flights continue to overlook the coastal State as only 42 charter flights landed in the State last tourism season (October to May) bringing only 7,630 tourists.
This is far below the pre-Covid-19 pandemic season when the arrival of tourists by charter flights was more than one lakh.
As per the data received from the Department of Tourism, 625 flights had landed in the State bringing 1,69,142 passengers in 2019-20, 813 flights bringing 2,18,776 passengers in 2018-19 and 981 flights bringing 2,47,365 passengers in 2017-18.
Though there was no arrival of tourists by cruise ship last season, 18 cruise ships docked in the State bringing 7,747 passengers in 2022-23 (till May).
The number of tourists arriving in the state by different international flights last season too was way below the number registered pre-Covid season.
As per the data, 1,34,922 passengers had arrived in the State by different flights in the January December 2022 period, 3,02,647 passengers in 2019, 3,12,630 passengers in 2018 and 3,35,573 in 2017.
The total foreign tourist arrival in the State in calendar year 2022 was 1,69,005 which was far below the number of total foreign tourist arrival of 9,37,113 in 2019.
The department of Tourism could not provide country wise charter statistics for the last tourism season.
The highest 20 charter flights from Kazakhstan had landed in the State bringing 2536 tourists, which was followed by 18 flights from Russia which brought 4707 tourists.
