Panaji
Goa tourism sector was seen elated with Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC)’s new website launched Tuesday, considering this is the first time there is one platform for tourists to make bookings for hotel-rooms, cabs and activities like helicopter joy-ride, hot air balloon, visit to spice plantations among several others.
But, at the same time, they caution that GTDC is likely to face stiff competition from established players like MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and TripAdvisor for hotel-rooms because of their long lasting market presence.
Tapas De, general manager, Hotel Fidalgo, said, “GTDC’s new website is a great step because tourists now will be able to know about everything available in Goa on one platform. When it comes to activities, tourists only know about jet-ski and paragliding. But, thanks to this website, now they will be able to know about so many other activities as well”
Tourists can now simply log into GTDC’s new website (www.goa-tourism.com) and go to ‘Book’ tab and make all sorts of bookings including for activities like elephant ride, visit to Anjuna Flea Market, ocean kayaking among various others with price specified over there. This will really spare tourists from bargaining with tour guides.
However, the new website’s toughest test will be in hospitality segment. A source on the condition of anonymity said, “When you have applications of any of these travel websites like MakeMyTrip or Goibibo on your mobile, you will keep on getting promotional codes, wherein they give you Rs 1500-3000 discount on room-tariffs. These websites pay this discount to hotels out of their own pockets to ensure that hotels don’t make losses by selling rooms at a discount”.
Meanwhile, GTDC has made its intentions clear that it is indeed aiming at garnering some share of hotel bookings segment.
Upon the launch of the new website, GTDC’s managing director, Nikhil Desai, had said, “The annual turnover of hotels in Goa is to the tune of Rs 7,000 crores and GTDC is targeting a business of Rs 100 crores through these hotels in the short run”.
But, to do that, GTDC will have to make sure that its new website gets good visibility.
De continued, “GTDC will have to invest in search engine optimisation so that when people search for hotel rooms in Goa on Google, GTDC’s website is prominently displayed on the first page of search itself”.
