GTDC signs MoUs with other states to lure more tourists

PANJIM, JULY 13
The Goa Tourism Development Corporation in a bid to lure more tourists to the scenic international destination has taken various crucial steps including signing of MoUs with the other tourist destinations in the country.
The GTDC has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with five different states – Sikkim, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Karnataka in a bid to attract tourists into Goa visiting those states.
According to the Goa Tourism Development Corporation Nikhil Desai the main idea is to expand the tourism panaroma.
“The MoUs will help towards mutual promotion of tourism, showcasing each others cultural heritage to the tourists and felicitating inbound travel into the respective states,” he said.
According to the deal, the corporations of Sikkim, Meghalaya, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Karnataka would mutually market their accommodations and tourism packages.
“Once a booking is made, 15 per cent of the amount will go to the corporation that has made the booking,” Desai said.
He said that since the GTDC accommodation would not be enough to handle the inflow of tourists, the corporation has into talks with all category of hotel owners.
“We are in talks with private hoteliers and even they will benefit from the MoUs,” he said.
Desai further said that with these MoUs, GTDC wants to build synergies in and out of those states to Goa.
“Anybody who visits Goa and want to visit one of these five states we can help them through the corporations of these states and visa versa,” he states.
“In the long run when we market Goa abroad, GTDC can act as a single window to attract tourist,” he said.
Through these understandings we can increase the foreign tourist inflow as well as give better packages to them, he stated.