PANAJI
A worried Travel and Tourism Association of Goa has petitioned Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar to invest money meant for tourism wisely to develop heritage tourism and infrastructure such as museums, even as it has promised to share some of the tourism promotional burden of the government.
In its pre-budget document, the TTAG has, among its suggestions, asked for value-added investments and to stop spending on marketing as there was no tangible benefit from it.
“We suggest that a provision be made in the State budget for setting up a vintage car and bike museum in Merces on the existing government land earlier acquired for a different purpose. The land is lying vacant as the original plan to build an amphitheatre has been dropped. It will be a big tourism booster,” TTAG President Francisco de Bragança said in his presentation before the Chief Minister on Monday.
He cited the fact that Ahmedabad has come up with a state-of-the-art museum of this kind and is part of the tourism circuit.
TTAG also suggested that the restoration of old heritage homes, which are more than 75 years old, should be encouraged by giving incentive to start hotels/accommodation, art galleries and providing local tax holidays for five years. “Most of the owners of such houses find it difficult to maintain these. Low-interest borrowing should be allowed through EDC or such other governmental organisations. Central Government had a similar scheme earlier which has lapsed,” the proposal
of TTAG reads. It has pointed out what it feels is a “stagnation, if not decrease in the flow of foreign tourists.” The domestic tourists come to Goa because it is an international tourist destination. The moment international tourists disappear from Goa, even the domestic tourists will stop coming. We need to preserve this balance,” Bragança said.
The TTAG has called for rationalisation of the marketing expenditure. “There is no need to raise the budgetary expenditure on tourism marketing at the cost of additional taxation on the hospitality industry. It has been a wasteful expenditure with no tangible benefits or increase in foreign tourist arrivals,” it noted and stressed on result-oriented campaigns.
