PANJIM: Ahead of new tourism season in October, the State government has hiked the fees for organising music festivals by almost 50-100 per cent depending upon the attendees.
In a notification issued on June 9, Director of Tourism Rajesh Kale has notified hike in fees for holding major tourism events. The department has also said that all the fees would be revised by 10 per cent annually with effect from April 1, 2024.
“The Government of Goa has revised the fee structure for Major and Minor Tourism related events in Goa as recommended by Empowered Committee for New Tourism Services,” the director said in the notification.
For music festivals organised in non-licenced premises, up to 5,000 attendees, the fees have been hiked from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 18 lakh.
Similarly, for music festivals with attendees between 5,000 and 10,000, the fee has been hiked from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh, while those above 10,000 attendees will have to shell out Rs 35 lakh as against the existing fee of Rs 20 lakh.
For night/handicraft bazaars, the old fees of Rs 50,000 per tourist season have been raised to Rs 60,000 per tourist season.
Similarly, for events such as motorbike weeks, car rallies, non-ticketed music fests, MICE exhibitions and other tourism-related events such as youth festivals, the fees would be Rs 60,000 lump sum.
For destination wedding, the fees are hiked from Rs 6,000 to Rs 50,000. The empowered committee of the new tourism services/event permissions body, in its meeting held on October 7, last year, had proposed to review the fee structure for major events, and the government has approved the proposal.
