The Hindu Business Line : Goa Govt sees rise in number of chartered flights

WITH Goa poised for a big leap in arrivals of the chartered flights for the season ahead, the Dabolim International airport is gearing up to allow the landing of the flights throughout the week.

Night operations are likely to be effectively implemented from this season including late night and early morning operations.

The State Government's sustained campaign abroad with the help of international electronic media and continued participation in world travel marts, fairs and road shows is bearing fruit, admit private sector travel-tourism stakeholders here.

Goa has been fast emerging as one of the favoured international destinations. Gone are the days when it had gained the notorious tag of being a "back-packers' paradise."

Apart from its reputation of being a peaceful destination, while several of the world tourism destinations faced terrorist attacks in last couple of years, the tsunami devastation in some of the premier South-East Asian destinations last year has brought the State to prominence in the world travel circuit once again.

Sources in the Airport Authority of India (AAI) confirmed that as against the earlier policy of allowing restricted weekend (Friday-Saturday-Sunday) slots for the chartered flights the airport will allow early morning and late night slots round the week.

The season has already begun with a Spain Air flight which arrived as early as in the first week of August and the next one to arrive in September was Britannia, said sources at AAI, which estimates the chartered flights to number 800.

Apart from the traditional European charters, Goa this year is expecting a lot of flights from Gulf countries, more flights from Russia, Brussels, etc. Particularly with the Russians, the charter season this year too will be extended beyond first week of May, sources in Goa Tourism said.

Overcoming two major setbacks to its chartered arrivals between 2000 to 2003, namely, September 11 terrorist attack in US and the threat of dreaded SARS disease, Goa's international tourism is booming since then.

From 419 chartered flights in the year 2000-01, the number shot up to 690 flights in 2004-05 . State's Tourism department officials say the charter flight schedule has not been received, but were confident that it would go to 700-750.

The arrivals of chartered tourist have also shown a significant increase with the number of tourists per flight also going up considerably since last couple of years, said Mr Charles Bonifacio, President of Goa Travel and Tourism Association, body of private sector tourism and travel trade.

From 1.16 lakh in 2000-01 the number of chartered tourist arrivals have gone up to 1.58 lakh last season, according to State Tourism department's official statistics.

The State has also witnessed a major growth in the overall arrivals last year with a record 24.50 lakh. While the domestic tourist arrivals went up to 20.85 lakh (a rise in 20 per cent) in 2004-05 from 17.25 lakh in 2003-04, the foreign segment witnessed a 15.5 per cent growth during the corresponding period with the arrivals going up from 3.14 lakh to 3.63 lakh.

The Deputy Tourism Director, Mr Arlindo Pereira, attributes the last year's sudden spurt to the Exposition of the Holy Relics of St. Francis Xavier at famous Old Goa's Bom Basilica Church as well as the much-publicised 35th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which was held in Goa for the first time.

The hotels in the higher segment here last year reported over 10 per cent average rise in ARR (Average Room Rate), an indicator of revenue boom in hospitality sector. This year's projections have been put at a conservative 21 lakh total arrivals by the department authorities.

Apart from the brief setback on account of heavy rain in Mumbai, that led to cancellations of flights, the private sector hospitality industry has done extremely well during the off-season and was very optimistic about the season ahead.

Mr Ralph de Souza, Chairman of North Goa's De Souza Group of Hotels who is also the Tourist Committee Chairman of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "The signs of a good season ahead are there to be seen from the fact that even during the traditional off-season, i.e. monsoon season, hoteliers in Goa on an average continued an occupancy well over 55 per cent with good business in corporate, business conferences and conventions in five-star resorts."

The tourism industry has welcomed the Tourism Minister, Mr Wilfred de Souza's plans to diversify its tourism product to include hinterland tourism with eco-tourism, pilgrim tourism and adventure tourism to attract more "paying tourists". Hitherto the State has been synonymous with beach tourism on account of its virgin beaches.

South Goa hotels too add to the optimism. "We hoteliers are a bit upset about the setback given by the introduction of VAT chain to the liquor.

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