Goa's domestic tourist arrivals jump 18%, total footfalls reach 46.3 lakh in Jan-May: Minister

An 18% increase in the number of domestic tourists during the January-May period has helped Goa more than compensate for the drop in foreign tourist arrivals into the state caused by geopolitical disruptions this year. Of the 46.3 lakh tourists who visited India’s premium beach destination during the first five months of 2026, over 44.3 lakh were from within the country.

In an exclusive interview with Fortune India, Rohan A. Khaunte, Minister for Tourism, Goa, said the overall tourist visit numbers have risen as Indians have taken up Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to promote domestic tourism and are increasingly considering states like Goa. “Indians are travelling around the world; they are the biggest spenders today. After the Prime Minister’s ‘Dekho Apna Desh’, we have seen a significant increase in footfalls on the domestic front,” he said.

The minister pointed out that four-star and five-star hotels in Goa continue to have an average occupancy rate of 75-80% throughout the year. “This is the monsoon season, and if you come to Goa today, you will find more families coming here. We had run a monsoon campaign, made collaborative arrangements with the airline sector, the hotel industry, and tour operators, and the numbers are showing the difference. Normally, the month of June used to be considered the off-season. Today, we have converted the monsoon season into a 24x7 experience,” he said.

The increase in domestic footfalls is also because of the conscious effort the Goa government undertook a couple of years ago to make visits more experiential for tourists, especially Indian tourists. “Earlier, when you talked about Goa, you talked about beaches only. From 2022 onwards, when I came in as tourism minister, we started the narrative ‘Goa Beyond Beaches’. Today, we are promoting the hinterland, we are talking about culinary experiences, and we are talking about adventure, wellness, heritage, tradition, festivals, temples, and churches. So, we have added more flavours and verticals,” he said.

Post-Covid, tourist arrivals in Goa have been growing, though the growth percentage has been uneven. The slowest growth since Covid was in 2025, when the overall number of tourist arrivals touched 108 million, just 3.78% higher than the 104 million recorded the previous year. If the five-month trend in 2026 is any indication, the state is likely to see footfalls increase further during the current year.

“Overall, we are very happy with the way the domestic numbers are increasing and with the type of tourists who have been coming in,” the minister said.