The Government of Goa led by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant approved the Goa Tourism Policy 2020. This policy envisions to make Goa “most preferred destination around the year for high-spending tourists” by 2024.
The policy plans to deploy a new tourism board which would become the backbone for all decisions towards planning, development and marketing of Goa tourism.
Its broad purpose would be to strengthen tourism assets, expand employment opportunities and tourism infrastructure from the footfall heavy beach belts to eco-tourism initiatives in the hinterland.
This larger autonomous body would work alongside industry stakeholders; unlike the earlier model where where several government bodies took independent decisions “without any holistic, long term vision” — which led to the misuse of tourism budgets.
The tourism board would now headed by the tourism minister and several tourism committees will be dissolved.
Menino D’Souza, Tourism Director of Goa throws some light on the policy — “Now we can say we have a vision for tourism. Short term and medium targets have been defined, which allows for creation of infrastructure within proper timelines. Tourism contribution to GDP is 40 per cent and we want to ensure the employment opportunities are not limited to coastal belts.”
