PANAJI
The festival of Janmashtami has come like a rblessing for tourism industry in Goa as domestic tourists arrived in rlarge numbers to the state. This year Janmashtami fell on Thursday whichr resulted in a four-day long weekend thereby allowing tourists to take ar break from their hectic daily schedules to visit Goa. As a result, a rnumber of hotels reported that they were totally sold out between Augustr 25 and August 28. This comes as a breather to hotel industry, which hasr a low occupancy rates during the off-season. Five-star hotels like rGrand Hyatt Goa, Taj Fort Aguada and Novotel Goa Resort and Spa were rfull on these days. Bhushan Bordekar, general manager, Windsor Bay in rCalangute, said, “We are totally sold out on August 25, 26 and 27. rPeople from different parts of India are coming to Goa for a vacation inr large numbers.” Saurabh Mishra, deputy operations officer, Citrus rHotel in Calangute, said, “We are 100% booked for the long weekend rstarting with Janmashtami. We are seeing a lot of rfree-individual-travellers (FITs) and groups coming to our property. I dr say 30% business is on account of groups, while the remaining 70% is rdue to FITs.” Mishra continued, “The fact that we have 16-17 hotels raround India and several regional offices is also helping us in getting ar lot of tourists.” Another source informed that a lot of tourists from rMumbai and Pune prefer driving down to Goa. That helps them in saving rmoney on air-travel. Besides, it even saves them from the hassle of rfinding taxi in Goa. Meanwhile, members from tourism trade expect good rbusiness even during the next weekend. This is be
