By Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji
Panaji, May 19: The sagging Goan chartered tourism industry was salvaged a bit by Russian arrivals but it could not prevent the overall drop of 10 per cent in the chartered tourists arrival compared to last year.
The last chartered flight from Goa left for the season on May 10 to Russia, operated by Transaero, which culminated the season 2008-09.
The chartered flight arrival data, which is being compiled, has indicated that around 614 flights arrived till April 27 in the state bringing in 1,45,414 visitors to this coastal resort state of Goa.
As expected, these figures comes with a drop of almost 30 to 35 per cent from English countries while 10-15 per cent reduction from Scandavian countries.
“The Russian chartered flights were the saviours who opened up new destinations for Goa this time,” Ernest Dias, Vice President, Tours and Travel Association of Goa (TTAG), said.
The statistics available from the state tourism department indicate that 287 charters from UK arrived this season bringing in 77,500 tourists while Russia remained on the second top position bringing in 44,116 through 178 chartered flights.
Amongst the other destination, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Italy and Finland brought in sizeable number of chartered tourists here. Germany became the third highest country to get in chartered tourists by flying 50 flights bringing in 9159 visitors.
The industry experts feel that the flow this year was not contending compared to last year. In all 710 chartered were flown to Goa last year in addition to the Condor flight operating 48 flights from Germany.
“The reasons are simple. This year, there was Mumbai terror attack and recession has sweeped Europe, which resulted in the drop,” Dias stated.
The TTAG, which is an apex body of tour operators, has decided to sit and introspect after this season as how to pep up the oncoming season.
“We will ask the state government for tax rebates. The hoteliers have already slashed their tariffs so they must be compensated as tourism sector is very important in the state,” Dias said.
He said that Goa is facing tough competition from other world destinations like Thailand, Singapore amongst others which needs to be scuttled with the attractive holiday offers. “Sri Lanka will now open up as a new destination after the war ends there,” he added.