PANAJI
The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement that the Central government will permit international tourists into Goa shortly.
"We have been campaigning for the permission for international scheduled and charter tourists to enter Goa subject to strict Covid norms," stated GCCI president Ralph de Sousa.
Representations were made to the government recently by a GCCI led delegation of charter representatives. The delegation had met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, asking him to assist the chamber to start international flights into Goa.
The Chief Minister had assured the delegation that he would personally take up the matter with the Centre. The GCCI has thanked the tourism secretary Ashok Kumar, director, Tourism, Menino De Souza and Manoj Patil from the CM’s office for structuring and coordinating the meeting.
Thanking the State government, medical fraternity and frontline workers for putting their lives at risk to ensure that almost the entire State is vaccinated, the GCCI president stated that it has boosted its campaign to open international flights to Goa. However, he cautioned the tourism stakeholders to strictly ensure that the existing Covid protocols are put in place.
“It is the responsibility of the stakeholders to ensure that all precautions are taken to avoid any infection, as negligence on their part would lead to the shutdown of the tourism industry for at least another year. The hotels and staff of tour operations should be duly vaccinated to ensure the safety of the citizens of Goa as well as the visitors. Lapses in Covid protocols will lead to a surge in new cases and the government will have no option but to stop the inflow of tourists leading to failure of the oncoming tourist season. Double vaccine certificates or negative RT-PCR tests need to be verified. If this is strictly followed, Goa's Tourism Industry will be back on track and ensure a rise in economic growth that was lost last year,” said the GCCI president.
