MAPUSA
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Wednesday reiterated that the government wants to promote Goa beyond the beaches and proposed Caravan tours to give hinterland tourism a push in the State.
The government has also proposed to formulate a home-stay policy in the State.
“Home-stay policy aims at streamlining the registration process for home-stays and to provide encouragement to home-stay owners,” Sawant said while allocating a budget of Rs 262.85 crore for tourism this fiscal.
He said caravan tours will help tourists to visit the interior parts of the State and also expose them to Goa’s rich culture and heritage.
In order to make life easy for tourists who travel by their own transport, the CM said vehicles entering the State will be checked for documents at the State borders.
“Special stickers will be fixed on all these vehicles that are checked on the border. These vehicles will not be stopped again for document verification within the State,” Sawant said.
The government has also planned to establish wellness destination centres and eco-cottages at Anjunem in Sattari and Ponda under the public private partnership (PPP) mode.
Facilities such as meditation centre, ayurvedic spa, eco cottages and excursion activities such as bird watching, trekking will also be made available to tourists.
In order to give heli-tourism a boost, the CM said that the tourism department has tied-up with a private body to promote helicopter tourism.
The government has also proposed to build a 1,320 seat capacity state-of-the-art convention centre at Rua de Ourem, Panaji under the Swadesh Darshan scheme to promote Meetings Incentives Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE).
A jetty terminal building has also been proposed at the Santa Monica jetty to promote boat tour activities and ancillary tourism facilities.
Sawant informed that the Basilica of Bom Jesus and other monuments will be developed under the Pilgrimage Rejuvenation and Spiritual Augmentation Drive (PRASAD) scheme and Rs 41.69 crore has been sanctioned by the Ministry of Tourism.
