the goan I network
MARGAO
The Small and Medium Hoteliers Association has joined the chorus of opposition to the Goa Registration of Tourist Trade (Amendment) Bill passed by the Goa Legislative Assembly, with Association president Serafino Cota making a fervent plea to the government to reconsider the Bill and save Goa’s tourism industry from the illegal tourism.
He further demanded that the government come out with a policy on home stays, making it clear that the hoteliers have nothing against the small time home stay business.
Addressing the media, Serafino said the amendment proposing to bring the online portals under the registration of Tourist Trade Act will not serve any purpose if the “gated communities” are not mandated to compulsorily register with the Tourism department.
He went a step forward to say that “gated communities” have already taken away 21 per cent of the tourist hotel business in the State. Serafino, however, clarified that the small and medium hoteliers have no complaint against the small time home stays operating in the State, even going to the extent of saying the association is even ready to adopt and guide these small time players.
“Online portals such as Oyo are signing big gated communities in the State. They sign contracts with second homes with foreign charters. This has been going on as nobody had bothered to find out whether they were operating with licence or just with a panchayat NOC,” he said.
To check this blatant illegality, Serafino pointed out that the hoteliers had demanded an amendment to the Tourist Trade Act, but lamented that the Bill passed by the Assembly in the just concluded Assembly session has
only added to the prevailing confusion.
In fact, he said the Amendment Bill as and when it becomes a law will be more dangerous for the hotel industry as it contains no provision mandating the dealers (the gated communities) to obtain licence and do business.
“We attribute no motives to the passage of the Amendment Bill. May be the Bill was passed by mistake and without detailed study. We had only demanded that the online portals as well as the gated communities register with the government before doing business. It now appears that the Bill only seeks to mandate the online portals to register with the authorities and leaving the gated communities off the hook,” Serafino said, while demanding that the Bill should be referred to the Select Committee or to some committee to study the pros and cons.
Asserting that the tourism industry is in big trouble, with the business down by nearly 27 per cent, he said the Tourist Trade Act ought to have protected the interest of the small and medium hoteliers, who pay all the taxes to the government.
Tourists no longer come by charters but scheduled flights: Serafino
MARGAO: Asserting that charters have stopped coming to Goa, president of the Small and Medium Hoteliers Association, Serafino Cota on Friday said that tourists no longer come to Goa by charter flights but by scheduled flights.
“This is happening because the tourism business is facing rough times. The business is pretty bad. For the last three months, we have not seen tourists coming by charter flights. They now all come by the scheduled flights,” he claimed.
Saying that the scheduled flights look like charter flights, Serafino said the scheduled flights do not fit into the chartered norms since they do not offer packages contained in charter flights.
HOTELIERS’ TAKE
The amendment proposing to bring the online portals under the registration of Tourist Trade Act will not serve any purpose if the “gated communities” are not mandated to compulsorily register with the Tourism department
Online portals such as Oyo are signing big gated communities in the State. This has been going on as nobody has bothered to find out whether they were operating with licence or just with a panchayat NOC
Small & medium hoteliers have no complaint against the small time home stays operating in the State
