From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji

Panaji, Jun 26: Goa may be known as a foreign tourist destination, but in reality domestic tourists have been helping the tourism industry prosper, even after facing competition from the destinations like Kerala, the official records indicate.

The latest statistics released by Goa Tourism Department today shows that the domestic tourist arrival for the calendar year 2011 has been highest. The number of domestic tourists arriving in the state has been on rise since last few years.

Total 22.25 lakh domestic tourists arrived in the state in the year 2011, famous for its beaches as against 22.01 lakh domestic tourists who turned up for the year 2010. For the year, 2009, 21.27 lakh domestic tourists had come to Goa as against 20.20 lakh in the year 2008.

The state had received 26.70 lakh tourists, last year, of which only 4.45 lakh were the foreigners.

“Domestic crowd keeps the tourism season going during the lean season when it rains in the state,” a state tourism department official said.

When foreigner tourists fly away to their native, the domestic tourists are seen visiting the state. The records indicate that the months of July, August and September, which are rainy season, had good number of domestic visitors arriving here.

Last year 63,563 domestic tourists arrived in July, 1.01 lakh in August and 1.13 lakh in September. The months of October, November and December, in the run up to the new year celebration has maximum domestic tourists arriving in the state.

The foreign tourists are scarce during the rainy months. The statistics revealed that 3240 foreigners were in the July, 3840 in August and 5274 in September, when the chartered flight movement is nil.

Throughout the year, the average stay of domestic tourist is five days while that of a foreign tourist is nine days.