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, at GCCI, have been campaigning for the permission for international scheduled and charter tourists to enter Goa, subject to strict Covid norms,” stated Ralph de Sousa who hoped that allowing foreign charters to Goa would help bring tourism back on track in Goa and make up for the losses during the lockdown period.
It is to be noted that representations were made to the government recently by a GCCI-led delegation of charter representatives which met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant requesting him to look into the issue of starting international flights into Goa.
Sawant had assured the delegation that he would personally take up the matter with the Centre. It was after then that a meeting was structured with the help of Tourism Secretary Ashok Kumar and Director of Tourism Menino De Souza along with Manoj Patil from the Chief Minister’s office. As almost the entire State has been vaccinated, the campaign to open international flights to Goa got a shot in the arm, said GCCI president. He also 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 tour operations staff 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 surge in new cases and government will have no option but to stop inflow of the tourists leading to failure of the oncoming tourist season,” stated Ralph.
He also mentioned that if the double vaccine certificate or negative RT-PCR test is verified and followed, the Goan tourism industry will be back on track.
