Team Herald
PANJIM: The Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) has appealed the government to unlock Goa phase-wise for the tourism industry, which has been severely affected due to COVID-19 induced lockdown.
TTAG President Nilesh Shah said that closure of the industry will further lead to substantial loss of jobs.
“The direct and indirect economic impact of the tourism industry in India is estimated at 10 per cent of the GDP and 40 per cent in Goa including multiple effects. Tourism in India and Goa is important for the country’s economy and is growing rapidly. However, we have seen closures of all the hotels, restaurants and bars on account of COVID-19 and the closures have continued from March 2020 till now. But it cannot remain closed for much longer as there will be substantial job losses and even more substantial revenue for the State,” he said in a press statement issued, on Saturday.
He stated that tourism is reopening gradually in various parts of India; and that in Goa too guidelines and protocols for reopening of hotels, restaurant, bars and all ancillary industries connected with tourism have to be followed. In fact, guidelines and protocols for reopening of the hotels and restaurants are all in place, and they are ready to open up.
“Though the protocols and guidelines require hotels to re-open, they cannot successfully do so unless the bars and restaurants are given permissions to reopen as well. Therefore, there is a need to reopen the hotels together with the restaurants and bars, which cannot be kept out of the picture and should be operational with normal timings,” Shah added.
He pointed out that from June 8 hotels and restaurants were asked to register with the Tourism Department if they wished to re-open; but no further breakthrough has been noted as yet.
“It is nearing 13 days from the said date and the industry is waiting for an OK from the government to start operating all these units. Industry needs to start one day or the other. Out of thousands of hotels waiting to reopen we have only about 200 who have applied for permission to reopen. Not all are going to reopen. Thousands are waiting in the wings to see what is going to happen. Many hotels situated in bigger cities in India have already started to operate for business,” he commented.
The Government of Goa therefore needs to look into the matter of re-starting hotels, restaurants and bars in the State on urgent basis.
He also assured the government that tourism industry is ready to co-operate for any Standard operating procedures (SOPs) to be put in place for restarting industry but it should be noted that it has to be a practical solution and a sustainable one once tourists start pouring in.
“If any further delay there would be a lot of people that would start losing jobs and will have mental health issues along with starvation. This can be more dangerous for the State. We appeal to the government to unlock Goa in a phased manner for the tourism industry at the earliest,” the TTAG president said.
