MAPUSA
Tourism Minister Rohan Khuante on Tuesday said beach volleyball and beach cricket was on top of the government’s mind in bid to promote sports tourism in the State.
Khaunte also expressed concern over rampant sand erosion along the beachfront and stressed on the need to initiate steps to arrest the trend.
“In sports tourism…We have been contemplating in terms of beach volleyball and beach cricket. We can hold these games in different formats. We need to infuse new thoughts to promote tourism. Beach volleyball or beach cricket internationally will be on a different platform,” Khaunte said.
The Tourism Minister was speaking to journalists at the side-lines of a function to unveil the Durand Cup trophies at Dona Paula.
Khuante said international players either retired or current can come to Goa and organise the games in a suitable format.
Stating that he was in touch with Sports Minister Govind Gaude, Khaunte said he was also trying to involve the Central government to take the plan forward.
“We are trying to get in touch with the Union sports ministry and see how we can do it and tune it to tourism. We are working on it,” he said.
He further said that biking could also be another event which could be tapped.
“MLA Joshua D’Souza who is into biking has come up with nice ideas…We need to sit together and try and venture out and see how best we can promote sports tourism,” he said.
The Tourism Minister said that sand erosion was a very serious issue and steps needed to be taken to find a solution to the problem.
“We have to understand how we can prevent erosion and at the same time ensure whether technology is available where a beach stretch can be revived,” he said.
“We have been talking to the environment department and experts. We need to know how we can resolve the problem,” he said.
