The Goan Network
As delegates from 125 countries made a beeline to see what Goa has to offer as a tourism destination, the stalls of luxury hotels, adventure trails, holiday makers and casinos put their best foot forward to attract the tourists at the ongoing Goa International Travel Mart (GITM).
The best of products and services were on display in an extremely organized and professional way at Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium. The stall of B:Live, which are India’s first E-Bike tours, got a lot of attention from delegates.
Blake Fernandes from B:Live said, “We provide our clients an immersive experience of Goa through E-Bike tours. We have battery operated bikes, which can also be paddled. On such high end bikes, we offer the tours of Divar Island, Fontainhas, Old Goa and Panaji at really affordable price of Rs 2,000 to 2,500 per person.”
GITM clearly shows that apart from sun, sand and sea, Goa has a lot more to woo the tourists as well. Take the case of ‘The Postcard Hotel’, which has opened three luxury hotels in the State in just the last ten months.
Anirudh Kandpal, senior vice president, The Postcard Hotel, said, “We have recently started our hotels at Moira, Velha and Cuelim. The idea is to offer smaller intimate properties to tourists, who want high end luxury experience. At our Velha property, we have just 6 rooms on a 5 acres plot. We want to provide local and authentic experience to our guests while maintaining the charm of Goan villages.”
Goa may have quaint and charming hotels, but who doesn’t want the thrill of adventure sports. To cater to that audience, there were stalls of such companies at the GITM as well.
Jumpin Heights has recently started offering bungee jumping experience to people at Mayem Lake. The company is run by ex-Army officers and its jump masters are trained under the experts from New Zealand.
An official from the company said, “Since our launch in Goa, we have done 250-300 bungee jumps. We follow the best safety practices and our experts motivate people to have such an experience. If you want to do bungee jumping, you should be between 12 and 45 years of age and your weight should be between 40 and 110 kgs.”
There were many other stalls offering wide range of products and services like architectural trails, Goan liqueurs, and even fruits, which have medicinal properties. A number of travel companies like Makemytrip and Goibibo made their presence felt at the event.
Many stalls were offering various kinds of alcoholic drinks too. And why not? When tourists come to Goa, who doesn’t want a peg or two. Adinco Distilleries has put up a stall to market its recently launched ‘Voodo Cream Liqueur’. Clive Almeida, brand manager of the company, said, “We are the only company in India which has its own cream liqueur. We also have Gilmore, which is a whiskey with deep roasted oak flavour. All our products are made in Goa.”
