TEAM HERALD
teamheald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Goa government is planning on Rs 4 crore worth of road shows throughout Europe to attract tourists for the decennial exposition of the sacred body of St Francis Xavier. This exposition is scheduled to be held on December 3, 2014 and the state has sought the Union Tourism Ministry’s financial help for this.
Goa Tourism Department is targeting 50,000 tourists from all over Europe.
Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar told a press briefing on Tuesday that they aim to host road shows to attract tourists and the State has already held talks with Union Tourism Minister Shripad Naik and Joint Secretary, last week on this. The road shows are scheduled for from June end till end of July (for one and a half month).
The department has prepared an estimate of Rs 4 crore for the road shows.
“We have requested the Centre to grant 50 per cent of the total funds. He (Naik) has asked us submit a proposal with the total cost for the road shows,” he said.
It may be recalled that task force headed by Naik had decided to promote the forthcoming exposition as a religious tourism event. The State is also contemplating to invite Pope Francis for the event for which the external affairs ministry would be requested to send an invitation.
In addition to this, the tourism minister said they are expecting 18 per cent more tourists during the coming tourist season including from Turkey and Uzbekisthan. Road shows were held in these two places recently.
During the last season, Goa received a record number of 3.5 million domestic and around three lakh international tourists. Parulekar said that a total of 1125 chartered flights landed at Dabolim during this period.
