The cultural links between Goa and Portugal is historical.
But can the two come together to develop tourism ties?
To explore this, tourism officials debated and madepresentations on steps needed to be taken to increase people to people contactand find ways to attract tourists.
Goa’s Director for Tourism, Nikhil Desai dished out aperfectly executed presentation that highlighted all the state of Goa had tooffer.
“Our plans are to target that segment of tourists thattravel worldwide. The cultural links that Goa and Portugal share should also behighlighted and brought to the fore,” Desai said.
The Chairman of the Tourism Board, Nilesh Cabral expressed similarviews.
Portugal officials supported Desai’s views and stressed theneed to make Goans aware what Portugal had to offer to them.
“More awareness needs to be created about Portugal. This iswhat we aim to do in the month of November,” CecÃlia Meireles,
Portugal’s Secretary of State for Tourism said.
“Our aim is to come to India with information about whatPortugal has to offer, and why it makes for an ideal holiday destination,” sheadded.
One of the members of Associação Portuguesa Agencia deViagens e Turismo, who is also the founder member of Portugal’s holidayheavyweights, Travel Tailors Paula Alves expressed her idea of introducing moredirect flights from Portugal to Goa in an attempt to boost tourism.
“It’s a shame considering historical links between Goa andPortugal, the two destinations have no direct flights. I hope to put such flightsin place provided it is commercially viable,” she said.
A representative of the biggest chain of travel operators inthe country, Akbar Holidays pitched in and vouched that such an option wasindeed possible and could be tried out.
“Such flights will be extremely convenient. If it is financiallyviable, then I see it as an avenue that must be pursued,” said Vasco Noronha,”of Akbar Holidays.
“At our end, we are doing all we can to make it a reality,and have approached a reputed airline company to explore the option. Mostimportantly it is imperative to make the travel rates more affordable to thecommon man,” he added.
Flights of fancy? One certainly hopes not.
Perhaps a beginning has been made for a bright tourismrelation between Goa and Portugal.
