Goa looks beyond Russia, U.K. to tap new foreign markets, focus on high-value tourism: Minister

The government of Goa is putting in place a multipronged strategy to reduce the impact of geopolitical shocks on foreign tourist arrival numbers. The State will reduce its dependence on legacy countries like Russia and UK to draw foreign tourists and promote Goa as a destination and experience among new emerging markets. Goa is also collaborating with the Centre to reduce several bottlenecks including connectivity and visa issues to boost international tourist arrivals into the State.

In an exclusive interview with Fortune India, Rohan A. Khaunte, Tourism Minister of Goa, said the plan to target new emerging markets has begun to work in the State’s favour. “We got lot of footfalls from countries like Poland, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. If I talk about Kazakhstan, last year, the number (of tourist arrivals from that country) into India was 25,000, of which 7000 was in Goa. This year, in the first three months alone, we have had 7000 tourists from Kazakhstan. The numbers are slowing increasing and we are not in a rush. Covid and later war have made us understand that we need to tap more markets”, he said.

“Right now because of war situation, it was bad. In the last couple of months, between January and April, we lost a lot of international travellers because of connectivity flight disruptions in the Middle East areas. So meven when we increase our infrastructure with two airports, railways, roadways, waterways, the bigger challenges remain Connectivity wise, we are not able to get new airlines (fly to Goa), while there were reductions in (the number of flights operated by) the airlines which are here. Airlines had cut operations, both domestic and international. That affected our international footfalls”, he said.

The minister however said that the impact was more visible in the budget segment as the hotels, the A & B category or five star and above, were all full during this period.

On the question of whether Goa is becoming an costly destination when compared to international destinations like Vietnam or Thailand, the minister said comparing a small State like Goa with such bigger international destinations itself shows the brand recall Goa enjoys. “We don’t want to call ourselves a cheap destination. It’s no longer the volume game, it has to be the value game. It is very important for us to ensure that the people who come to Goa to a tourist experience are able to spend”.

“There could be many international destinations competing with Goa, but statistics say, the fellow who comes to Goa, comes to Goa. Somebody may say it is an expensive destination, somebody may say it is a budget destination. We have rooms and capacities for every section of people who would like to travel. But more importantly, the difference between Goa and any other place in the world is its culture and the people”, he explained.

He said the State government is seeking clarity and support from the Centre on various connectivity related issues that are impacting tourism dependent economies or States, including Goa.

“We need to have more scheduled flights, more charter operations. We need to have the connectivity done because our own airlines have difficulties in connecting more international destinations. Then there are some demands for visa on arrival, at least visa on arrival for the operating charter flights, for some markets. We need to look for the support of the Centre here”, the minister said. “We have a very strong global recall. We need to convert that recall value into arrivals, arrivals into spends, and ensure the local inclusivity, the last person gets the advantage of the tourism sector”.