PANJIM: Tourism department is pitching in for visitors from Netherlands as it branches out to countries promoting Goa, in an attempt to increase arrivals in the State. Tourism Director Ameya Abhyankar informed that they are in talks with charter operators from Netherlands to bring in tourists to Goa.
“We are studying various concepts as a part of ‘Brand Study’ so that we have more inbound arrivals. We are presently in talks with charter operators from Netherlands,” he told Herald.
This is in addition to countries it has already approached such as CIS, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Spain, Australia, New Zealand and European countries. With foreign tours on their mind to promote Goa on international platform, the department claims promotional activities cannot be stopped in the wake of several countries emerging as competitors.
“We are expecting more than 1,200 charter flights this season. If we don’t make our presence felt, we could lose tourists… At present, some charter flights are flying to Colombo as a result of aggressive promotion by Sri Lanka,” he said. “The more we showcase, the better results it will yield…” According to Russian Information Centre in Goa, Russian arrivals by charter flights – which has been the highest since last two seasons – is expected to drop by 20 percent this season even as many are likely to arrive by direct flights.
At the World Trade Mart starting from Monday, the officials have already planned meetings with travel and tour operators from various participating countries.
With the exposition of St Francis Xavier scheduled this month, the department has already made attempts to attract visitors from Spain, Europe and Lusofonia countries.
In line with its strategy to promote religious tourism in Goa, the government had decided to advertise the decennial exposition through in-flight magazines to target potential visitors aboard two international airlines – Swiss and Singapore International Airlines.
The magazines would comprise of details of the exposition, photographs and other facets of Goa tourism. There was however no updates from the tourism department on this proposal as on Sunday.
