Panaji, Feb 4 (IANS): Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday said that his government is taking all steps to attract high end tourists and forging ties with Public Private Partnership (PPP), "which is necessary to achieve the goal".

He said this while speaking during the inauguration of helicopter services started by the Tourism Department on the PPP model, along with 'Soaring Aerospace Pvt. Ltd' at Old Goa in the North district.

"Quality tourists should come to Goa. Till now, anyone used to come and litter areas by cooking food in the open. Such things were going on. We need to streamline and concentrate (on attracting quality tourists), and give high end service to attract quality tourists. This we have started now," Sawant said.

"The government has focused on ease of doing business and attracting quality tourists. We have decided to create facilities for the next 25 years. For this, half of the infrastructure is ready. Be it Manohar International Airport at Mopa or connectivity of north to south by new bridges. The basic infrastructure is ready," he added.

"We have started to create a second phase of infrastructure and providing human resources. Public Private Partnership is necessary to target high end tourists, the government can't do it alone. We welcome those who want to invest in the tourism sector. We will announce some schemes during the budget to attract PPP and investment in the tourism area," he said.

He said that advanced facilities are provided in the tourism area and soon the convention centre will be opened.

"Goa is famous as a wedding destination. We will also bring a solution for 'loud music after 10 p.m.' and try to attract high end tourists," Sawant said.

As per the official records, in 2019, about 71,27,000 were domestic tourists who arrived in Goa, while 9,31,000 were foreign tourists.