Significant drop in tourist arrival in Goa

by SUDESH BHOSLE
Posted on 2009-04-30
VASCO- A significant drop in the number of chartered flights and tourists arriving in the state could perturb the tourism industry in the state.
According to the statistics available from the Dabolim airport, the tourist arrival in the state during 2008-09, which includes international and domestic tourists, went down by a huge margin of 3,57,763 as compared to the previous year.
The sources at the Dabolim airport told ‘The Navhind Times’ that the air passenger arrival in the state during 2007-08 was 25,79,730 which included 4,34,399 foreign tourists. In the year 2008-09, the tourists arriving in the state by air came down to 22,21,967 which included 3,89,667 foreign tourists.
Subsequently, there was also a drop in the number of chartered flights with 660 arriving in 2008-09 as compared to that of 763 in 2007-08.
According to the airport director, Mr D Paul Manickam, there could be two reasons for this drop in chartered flights and tourist arrival in the state. He said that the global meltdown and the financial crunch that the world is experiencing could be one reason for this scenario while the fear spread after the Mumbai terrorist attack could be the second reason keeping back people from travelling.
He however was hopeful of an increase in the number of air passengers during the current financial year with the operation of an additional new scheduled airlines ‘Air Arabia’ which commenced its operations from this month, making three trips a week. Mr Manickam also informed that ‘Qatar Airlines’ would be operating in Goa from the month of June while ‘Air Asia’ would also start its new flights in the state in the coming months.
“The operation of some new flights in Goa could enhance the number of tourists and also add up to the number of flights in the current financial year”, stated Mr Manickam. He further said that the chartered flight season in the state would come to an end on May 10 with the arrival of flights from Russia.
Mr Manickam informed that the airport authorities have certain expectations for the coming years. According to these expectations 33,66,110 tourists are anticipated by the end of the current financial year. The number of tourists would increase subsequently year after year with anticipated figures of 37,02,721(2010-11); 40,72,993(2011-12); 44,80,292(2012-13); 49,28,322(2013-14) and 54,21,154(2014-15), said Mr Manickam.
Mr Manickam also informed that the work on the new integrated international terminal building has not been started as yet and the delay could have a negative impact on the tourists arriving in the state. It could also prove to be a problem in accommodating the new scheduled flights at the Dabolim tarmac. He also informed that negotiations for having a parallel taxi track at the airport and thereby signing the memorandum of understanding between the Airport Authority of India and the Indian Navy is on and has not been finalised as yet.