Rupesh Samant

Panaji, May 27: After a drop of almost ten per cent in the international tourist arrivals for current tourism year, Goa government is optimistic that the upcoming season, which will begin post-monsoon, will revive the situation for the sagging industry.

State Tourism Minister Manohar Ajogankar on Monday said that various factors like slowdown in the economies of the nations from where foreign arrivals were happening dented the international tourism inflow for the current season in the coastal State.

“But the things would surely improve by the next season which will kick off after the monsoons. We have been involved into extensive marketing and showcasing of Goa across different destinations through travel marts, exhibitions and other events,” Ajgaonkar said.

He admitted that the international tourist arrivals went down by almost ten per cent during the tourism season that would be winded up as the monsoon hits the beaches. The beaches of the State will be marked as `no swimming zones’ when monsoon arrives, tentatively during first week of June.

The data available from State Tourism department has indicated that the number of chartered flights have plummeted from 1900-odd to 1500-odd for current tourist season. The destinations like Russia, which contributes for the number of arrivals, has wound up their chartered flights much before the end of the season.

Ajgaonkar said that the attempts were made to encourage the number of foreign arrivals during the ongoing season by permitting events like Sunburn Electronic Dance music festival.

He said that the State has no dearth of domestic tourists, who flock on the beaches, but the tourism department is largely looking at inviting high spending travellers, who will be contributing to the economy of the State.

“Everyone agrees and figures indicate that the number of domestic travellers have increased in Goa. But, besides them, we are looking at high spending visitors,” he said.

State’s tourism industry has been blaming poor infrastructure and unclean beaches as one of the reason for decrease in international arrivals.

Ajgaonkar said that tourism department has engaged beach cleaning agency which has been working round-the-clock to ensure that the shorelines are clean. “We have also introduced a concept of reporting the piled garbage on the beaches on WhatsApp. Once anyone reports about piled up garbage on WhatsApp number of the department, immediate attention is given to clean it up,” he said.