GOA TOURISM DECIDES TO HAVE ITS OWN STALL IN INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL MART: PERSONAL ENJOYMENT?

PANJIM: Probably, Goa Tourism Department has learnt its lesson. Henceforth, it will have an independent stall whenever it is participating in any international travel mart.  For some time now the Tourism Department has been under fire for its stalls at international travel/tourism shows have been downright unappealing. It has decided to henceforth present Goa smartly by taking up an independent stall.

“When we are under India Pavilion we are not in a position to have our stall the way we want to. We have do it as per their specification and within limited space, and hence it’s been decided that we will have independent stall when we participate in international travel mart next,” Swapnil Naik, Director of Tourism said when it was pointed out that Goa’s stall is always unimpressive.

The stall will be adjacent to Indian pavilion so that it does not lose on visitors that will specially come to India pavilion, said the Tourism director.  The department was not able to take up ‘independent’ stall due to budget constraint but henceforth, it will put its best foot forward.

Tourism Minister Nilkant Halarnkar during his visit to WTM, London 2010, has also realized that Goa’s stall looked shabby in comparison to stalls of other countries.  Upon which the tourism minister issued direction to tourism director to ensure that in future Goa stall should be big as well as impressive.

The contribution of the tourism sector to government treasury is about 850-1000 crores but total budget allocation for tourism department is paltry Rs 89 crores out of which major portion is spent on salaries and other heads.  Not surprisingly, it has to limit its spending on advertising and other promotional activities.