The vision is still blurred. The Tourism departments attempts at focusing on a plan for Goa’s tourism is still stuck in time. And the document to articulate this vision will still take some time in coming. As pack time approaches for yet another season end, the vision is somewhere behind the storm clouds approaching.
The department has stated that a final draft of 25-year vision document is expected to be ready during the next tourism season. By which time there may be a new government of a new dispensation. And though governance is supposedly permanent, those who run it are not
Tourism officials said that the plan – consisting of four modules will be compiled into one full fledged report and is expected to be complete by October-November. The draft will however go through another stage of seeking opinions from the public after which the process to make it into a policy will be carried out.
“The consultants are yet to submit module 2 to us (tourism department) after which it will be forwarded to the government and the review committee headed by principle secretary tourism. Whatever changes suggested will be incorporated and sent back to the government. After this procedure, the consultants will start working on module 3,” the official reveals.
The department claims that it has been inviting inputs from various stakeholders, which are being forwarded to the consultants as a part of the project. It is now learnt that a meeting and discussions for preparing module 3 is likely by mid-June. “This will be followed by preparation of module 4,” he said adding, “The entire process will be till October-November when the final draft will be ready. It will be compilation of all the specifics in the four modules.”
Interestingly, the work on the plan began much after the file, seeking granting of consultancy contract, made the rounds of the Finance Department for three years from 2012-2015.
The plan is expected to lay down the framework for deciding which tourism products to focus on and identify the right type of tourists for Goa. According to the sources, the vision document will cover short-term (five- years), medium-term (15 years) and long-term (25 years) aspects of the business in the sector wherein number of tourists, average days spent and expenditure per tourist, contribution to Goa’ economy, job creation for locals and increasing environmentally sustainable tourism are being studied.
The official stated that besides conducting field survey of current and potential tourists, the consultants are also interacting with international and domestic tour operators, airlines and travel agents besides other stakeholders.
Moreover, the initiatives, which are yet to catch up among the tourists is a part of the plan. “There would also be training aspect included in the plan for the tourism service providers like taxis,” he commented.
