PANAJI
The State government has been pushing for spiritual tourism, but disappointingly, the total number of visitors has dropped.
While domestic travel visits (DTV) showed a slight decline last calendar year in comparison to figures five years ago, foreign travel visits (FTV) plummeted significantly, with around eight lakh fewer FTVs compared to 2018 figures.
Details tabled by Union Minister of Tourism G Kishan Reddy in Lok Sabha revealed that the highest tourist influx was in 2019 with 71.27 lakh DTVs and 9.37 lakh FTVs.
In 2018, DTVs were 70.82 lakh and FTVs were 9.34 lakhs while in 2020, amid Covid-19, DTVs dropped to 32.59 lakh, and FTVs to 3.03 lakh. Despite a marginal increase in DTVs to 33.08 lakh in 2021, FTVs dwindled to 0.22 lakh. The last calendar year witnessed 70.12 lakh DTVs and 1.75 lakh FTVs.
All this comes at a time when the State government is focusing on boosting religious tourism, with plans for spiritual tours for both “ domestic and foreign visitors.
The Goa Tourism Development Corporation is also tasked with giving temples in Quepem, Sattari, Canacona, and Sanvordem a facelift and Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte has been reiterating to promote Goa as the Dakshin Kashi with works on to make the otherwise known beach destination, a spiritual tourism circuit.
But in what could be a setback, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath claimed that last year while Goa welcomed 80 lakh tourists, Kashi alone recorded a footfall of seven crore devotees whereas six crore devotees reached the Braj region.
