TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: From 18 to 180 countries, visa-on-arrival (VOA) extended to almost the whole world is set to be a game changer for Goa tourism in the next season beginning October 2014.
“By then Goa’s new airport terminal at Dabolim will have all the infrastructure in place and cater to the rush of tourists from across the globe,” said a senior official in the tourism department.
The MHA’s announcement last week extending VoA to almost 180 countries has the tourism industry in Goa on an upbeat mood.
“The surge in arrivals could be as high as a million foreign tourists over the next 2-3 years,” said this official adding that presently arrivals to Goa from international destinations is around half a million.
Goa could see more footfalls from South East Asia, Middle East, East Europe and other Asian countries.
While central intelligence agencies have cleared the visa regime, it has not allowed extension of this facility to eight countries namely Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Somalia.
For those countries which have been considered for VoA, they would need to apply for it on the designated website along with the required fees and the same would be granted via electronic version within three days valid for a period of 30 days.
Visa-on-arrival would be availed in 26 major domestic airports including Goa from where international flights ply.
Goa is looking at big airlines such as Air Asia which currently brings tourist to Chennai from Malaysia.
“We are expecting Air Asia to fly to Goa within the next six months,” said an official in the tourism department.
This official said that Goa could actually serve as the gateway to other tourist destinations in the country as tourists arriving first in Goa could later visit neighbouring States of Karnataka, Maharashtra and so on.
However one of the biggest challenges before this State is controlling riff-raffs from taking advantage of this facility.
The tourism stakeholders on the other hand though delighted about MHA’s decision to widen the ambit of visa-on-arrival for visitors from all over the world are apprehensive on how Goa would deal with the latest decision.
“There are a large number of problems irking the new airport terminal at Dabolim,” said a businessman in the tourism industry and also member of the TTAG, Savio Messais.
The TTAG chief Francis Braganza also said, “It is to be seen how the VoA is effected successfully,” adding that Goa has till today not been able to effect VoA facility extended to several countries during the last one year.
