Goa tourism stakeholders have decided to diversify the products offered to the guests here by vigorously promoting the hinterlands for international and domestic visitors.

The Goa International Tourism Mart (GITM), which is scheduled in October this year near here, will be showcasing Goa as a bouquet of experiences for buyers and sellers, the State Tourism Director, Mr Swapnil Naik, said.

The organisers have based the entire mart on theme ‘refresh Goa’. Mr Naik said that although the event is with international focus, there is equal weightage given for the domestic tourism market that is growing fast and also fetching handsome revenue for the state.

GITM was conceived for the first time last year when the state received bad press owing to the reported crimes on its beaches.

Mr Naik said the government and the industry then wanted buyers and sellers to visit the state themselves and judge about the security aspect.

The Goa Tourism Development Corporation Managing Director, Mr Nikhil Desai, said that the first GITM received mix reaction from the stakeholders. “We cannot quantify how much was the exact benefit to the trade because of the event,” he said adding that this time around, the tabulation would be kept on what’s happening during and after the mart.

Mr Desai said that it will be like living in fool’s paradise if tourism industry in Goa ignores the emerging threats from the markets like Sri Lanka and other South East Asian countries.

He said there is also a challenge to tap the domestic tourism market, a huge pie of which is shared by other Asian, European and West Asian nations.

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