Expect visitor arrivals nos this year to be same or higher than last year: Goa Tourism Minister Rohan A Khaunte

Goa saw a record 10.8 million tourist arrivals last year and the state, which is now a “year-round destination”, expects similar or higher visitor numbers this year, said tourism minister Rohan A Khaunte.

Domestic tourist arrivals through the year have helped the state offset lower international arrivals, he told ET in an interview. “The US-Iran conflict and flight curbs have impacted international arrivals. But despite scheduled flights getting cut internally, domestic travel to Goa has been on the rise from metros and tier-2, tier-3 cities,” he said.

Total tourist arrivals in Goa reached 7,690,149 between January and September, up from 7,632,100 during the year-ago period. In September alone, tourist arrivals stood at 808,276, up from 767,383 a year ago.


“But we want to look at value over volume. Domestic figures for January-August have surpassed last year’s numbers. International travel is on the lower side; the international numbers are not very different compared to last year,” Khaunte said. “We have been looking at sports tourism, promoting weddings, conferences, religious travel and monsoon travel. All these measures have helped improve overall numbers this year and have aided in positioning Goa as a year-round destination.”

The October-December quarter should be promising in terms of tourist arrivals, according to the state tourism minister. “Air India and IndiGo are looking at increasing flights for the year end season. Charters have started from destinations such as Gatwick and Manchester. We are also looking at charters from Birmingham. Russian charters have started coming in. We are also looking at attracting other premium travellers from markets such as Poland, Kazakhstan and Gulf to Goa,” he said.

Khaunte said a new MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) bureau being set up in the next two weeks should help aid businesses operating in the large-scale conferences and weddings segment. “The MICE bureau will operate like an independent company, having representatives from the private sector as well as the government, headed by the secretary of tourism or director of tourism. It will be focused on promoting MICE and weddings,” he added.

He said the tourism department is looking at promoting sports tourism and hosting tournaments to leverage the state’s core infrastructure. “For example, we have the beaches. We need to see whether we can host beach cricket tournaments. We are looking at table tennis tournaments. There is also the concert economy. All these measures can create synergies and provide more inclusive economic opportunities for the locals,” he said.