Team Herald
PORVORIM: The State government on Monday informed the Legislative Assembly that the tourism master plan aims to develop a higher quality and more diversified offer for tourists which will include village stays and walks, while safeguarding and improving tourism and general socio-economic interest of Goan stakeholders.
Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar said the tourism master plan will work towards diversifying product portfolio and reduce dependence on the North Goa beach belt and create positive economic impact improve quality across the tourism value chain.
The Minister said that the consultant, KPMG, has submitted Module 1, 2 and 3 which has been completed and approved by the government. Further the consultant has submitted Module 4 report, (Tourism Policy) which is being reviewed by the Evaluation Committee, constituted under the Chairmanship of Principal Secretary (Tourism).
“The implementation of the master plan would be beneficial to Goan tourism as it aims for sustainable development of tourism,” the Minister said replying to a question tabled by Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Kavalekar.
Azgaonkar said the master plan is expected to facilitate streamlined development of tourism in the State with significant focus on infrastructure development, and raising the quality standard of tourist facilities and services.
“This would help in increasing tourism’s contribution to the State, in terms of employment and contribution to GDP while safeguarding Goa’s interests,” he said.
“The Master Plan proposes two tourism village stays programs under the culture and heritage programs. The elements undertaken for promoting village stays – identification of village cluster based on authentic features, with emphasis on maintenance of Goan tradition and culture,” the Minister said.
“The aim of the master plan is to seek innovative means of financing, that is private participation, CSR initiative of companies, crowd funding, hotel chains and multinational organisations developing model tourist experience villages and others,” he said.
The minister said, “Tourism programmes which features village walks/home stays are proposed to be marketed and promoted through the website, mobile applications, key physical point programs, press, publicity and programmatic marketing, customer intelligence/campaigns and integration into a smart tourism destination.”
