TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The Centre is confident that the current Russia-Ukraine crisis will not have much impact on the country’s tourism even as it is maintaining a close watch on the same.
“I think effect will not be much. But we can’t say anything right now as the tourism season will begin next month. This is off-season,” Union Tourism Minister Shripad Naik told reporters on the sidelines of swearing-in ceremony of Goa Govenor Mridula Sinha at Raj Bhavan on Sunday.
Since two years, Russian tourists have topped the list of tourists visiting Goa annually, which was earlier dominated by the British. A total of about 1.62 lakh Russian tourists arrived in Goa compared to 1.45 lakh British tourists in 2013.
Responding to a question on the much-awaited decennial exposition of the relics of St Francis Xavier starting from November 22, the North Goa MP said that Centre will provide all possible financial help to the State government.
“The exposition is supported by us (Centre). We will provide all the possible financial help for the event. The event will be promoted in a big way and it will be part of the tourism ministry’s campaign on its website,” he said.
Commenting on the tourism projects for Goa, Naik said they have already given a go-ahead for three PPP projects for Goa including the Rs 30 crore hotel management at Farmagudi for which foundation stone was recently laid, water sports complex which costs Rs 40 crore and a cruise passenger terminal at Vasco, to the tune of Rs 9 crore.
