PANJIM: The ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict has cast a shadow over the tourism season’s first charter flight from Israel which was scheduled to arrive in the State next month.
The tourism stakeholders raised concern over the repercussions arising out of the situation and its impact on the tourism industry in the State.
This is the second time that an international conflict will affect tourism in the State. The last tourism season was affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine, impact of which is still being felt by the tourism industry in the State.
Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) President Nilesh Shah said, “In any war-like situation in any part of the world, tourism is the first thing to get affected.”
Shah said, “We are getting Israeli tourists in Goa and after many years. We were supposed to have a charter flight from Israel once a week from mid November. Now we do not know what would be the fate of that and how long this war will last. But overall it will have a long term effect.”
He said, “Before Covid-19, we used to get five flights a day from Russia but now we are getting 5 flights a week. That is the difference. War affects tourism for sure but what will be the impact we do not know. Though our dependence on tourists from Israel is not much, when such a situation arises there is a lot of negativity, not only in that country but throughout the world. It will have an impact on tourism for sure but we hope that it will not to that extent and the war like situation will end very soon.”
Tour operator Ernest Dias said though it is too early to say anything because it has not been even 24 hours when the war broke out but there is a concern that there will be some hit.
“We will start receiving constellations. The first charter flight from Israel is scheduled to arrive next month. I got to know that an Air India flight has been cancelled. It is the first time that a charter flight from Israel is scheduled to arrive in Goa. The Russia-Ukraine war had already been affected. Inbound business of charter flights is badly affected,” he said.
