The Center for Research and Excellence between Society and Technology (CREST) of Fr Agnel College of Arts and Commerce, Pilar, organised INFLUENCE 2018 “ A Mass Media Summit as a tribute to Mother Mary Jane Pinto sfn. on the 21st of July 2018. This summit was a rallying cry for the youth to come together and work towards broadening the scope of what tourism has come to mean in Goa; to move beyond the tag of ‘sun, sand and sea,’ to reveal a Goa that is infinitely more beautiful when it is thriving in its cultural heritage. The first session at Influence 2018, was the the Mother Jane Memorial Lecture titled: ‘Redefining Tourism: Nature & People over Plunder and Profits!’ was delivered by Fr Freddy Bartolomeu Braganza. In this session, Fr Freddy spoke about making tourism work for the Goans by shining the spotlight on Goan villages that have tremendous potential to become self-sustaining centers of wellness tourism. In the second session which was the Mother Jane Memorial Workshop, the first part was conducted by Dhiraj Waghle, who spoke about ‘How students can empower governments to promote wellness tourism at the grassroot level.’ Wagle spoke about the need for innovative marketing, wellness tourism and the importance of recognizing the unique cultural heritage of each and every village in Goa. In the second part of this session, Fr. Freddy segregated the audience into groups. Ajit Bakal sarpanch of Azossim-Mandur, Xavier Gracias sarpanch of Agassaim, Francis D’Souza sarpanch of Batim and Cypriano sarpanch of Neura also joined the workshop as mentors to the students. The students highlighted plenty of unique characteristics of the villages of Dongri, Merces, Agassaim, Batim and Azossim/Neura which could be promoted as a means of wellness tourism.
The results of the workshop will be incorporated later into a certificate course where pairs of students will each take up a ward of every village falling under the St Andre constituency, understand its cultural heritage and history and create a documentary that brings forth the uniqueness of each village. The best 3 documentaries will also receive awards at docufest in the month of June which is a part of the event.
Towards the end of the Summit, Evencio Quadros, Patron of CREST urged students to actively take up the cause of wellness tourism and to make the conservation of Goa’s cultural heritage, a top priority.
