KARSTEN MIRANDA
Fresh data placed before Parliament has underlined a stark real ity for Goa’s tourism sector: while the State may be cele brating record overall foot falls, its once-dominant po sition in the foreign tourist segment has weakened sig nificantly in the post-pan demic years. Figures tabled in the Lok Sabha on February 9, 2026, by Union Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat reveal that Goa has slipped to seventh place among coastal States and Union Territories in terms of For eign Tourist Visits (FTVs) in 2024 — and no longer features in the national top five for foreign arrivals. The numbers tell a sober ing story. In 2019, the last full year before the pandemic disrupted global travel, Goa recorded 9.37 lakh foreign tourist visits. By 2024, that figure had fallen to 4,67,911 — a drop of near ly 50 per cent over five years. The 2024 total translates to a 2.23 per cent share among the listed coastal States and UTs, placing Goa be hind Maharashtra, West Bengal, Guja rat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
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Maharashtra led the 2024 rankings with 37,05,170 foreign tourist visits (17.69 per cent share), followed by West Bengal with 31,24,462 (14.92 per cent) and Gujarat with 22,74,477 (10.86 per cent). Tamil Nadu and Kerala also maintained substantial foreign inflows, consolidat ing their position ahead of Goa. Even Karnataka, with 4,85,204 foreign visits, edged past the State. The reshuffle marks a significant shift from Goa’s long-standing identity as India’s premier beach destina tion for international travellers. A separate written reply in Parliament dated January 29, 2026, further confirmed that Goa did not feature among the top five States receiving foreign tourist visits in 2024. Nationally, India recorded 9.95 million Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) in 2024 — 4.52 per cent higher than 2023 but still 8.95 per cent below the pre-pandemic benchmark of 10.93 million in 2019. International Tour ist Arrivals (ITAs) reached 20.57 million in 2024, placing India 20th globally. While inbound tourism at the national level is steadily approaching pre-Covid volumes, the state-wise distribu tion has shifted — and Goa appears to have ceded ground in the international segment. Yet the picture is not uniformly bleak. Data released by the Goa Tourism Department in Janu ary 2026 shows that the State recorded 1,08,02,410 total tourist arrivals in 2025 — the highest ever in its history. However, the surge was driven overwhelmingly by do mestic travellers, who accounted for 1,02,84,608 visitors. Foreign arrivals in 2025 stood at 5,17,802 — an im provement over the 4,67,911 recorded in 2024. The year on-year uptick suggests gradual recovery, but the gap with 2019 remains substantial. Even in 2025, the foreign tourist count was still more than four lakh short of the 9.37 lakh recorded before the pandemic. The contrast is striking: Goa has crossed the one-crore mark in overall tourist footfalls, yet its international seg ment — once central to its global brand — is operating at barely half its former scale. The parliamentary comparison between 2019 and 2024, read alongside the 2025 State data, points to more than a temporary dip. It suggests a structural rebalancing of India’s coastal tourism economy. Other States have not only recovered faster but expanded their relative share of overseas visitors. For Goa, the challenge is no longer simply restoring numbers to pre-pandemic levels. The headline figure of record total arrivals may signal growth. But in the foreign tourism segment — long a barometer of Goa’s interna tional appeal — the State’s slip out of the national top five marks a significant turning point.
