TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Work on preparation of Goa’s Tourism Master Plan is set to begin as KPMG-India along with its Spanish consortium has been recommended by the high powered committee for selection as the consultants.
The arduous process to select a consulting agency for the master plan which began in December 2012 concluded Monday with the Mumbai based KPMG-India and its Spanish partner scoring over close rival Deloitte also of Mumbai which had bid with its UK consortium for the mega plan.
The State appointed committee’s choice of consultant will now be placed before the government for its consent and signing of the contract.
A tourism department top official said, “We can expect the Tourism Master Plan within a period of eight to 10 months once the contract is signed,” adding that the industry stakeholders who are represented on the master plan selection committee will monitor every module that the agency will have to prepare and submit for approval.
According to officials, KPMG-India along with its international consortium Euro Praxis (Barcelona based) will have experts on the team and will have to prepare seven modules as part of the process for preparing the State’s Tourism Master Plan.
In all, three agencies had bid for the task of preparing Goa’s Tourism Master Plan. The committee had the task of choosing between two, both of whom had well drawn international experience and the entire exercise, officials say, was conducted transparently.
Till date, the Tourism department has appointed an internationally renowned PR agency Adfactors, Chlorophyll Brand and Communication Consultancy Pvt Ltd to Brand Goa and now KPMG has been shortlisted to prepare Goa’s Tourism Master Plan to give Goa tourism a new thrust.
