Panaji: Promising a shift from enforcement to facilitation, tourism minister Rohan Khaunte on Sunday said that online approval and registration services for the tourism industry will be rolled out within a week. Khaunte, who was speaking at a Travel and Tourist Association of Goa (TTAG) event, said that Goa needs to focus on a long-term strategy to attract high spending tourists. “Businessmen should focus more on their business and spend less time on paperwork and visiting government offices. This week we will introduce and launch online services for registration and renewal of permissions for all types of hotels, guest houses, water sports and other services,” Khaunte said. He also said that he has directed department officials to “trust the Goemkar” and ensure that documentation and verification checks are kept to the minimum with e-sign documents being requested. “We need to be more of facilitators and as a thought, as we bring these things online, I have told the department to work with the tagline trust the Goemkar. There has been a trust deficit in the government with the paperwork coming in and when we give permissions the department checks the genuineness of the papers,” Khaunte said. Reiterating his earlier point that Goa needs to focus on quality tourists instead of numbers, he said that a five to 10-year plan needs to be put in place to brand Goa as a premium tourist destination. “We need to get the right type of tourists, high-spending tourists here. If we put together a plan of five to 10 years, we will start generating quality tourists. When we talk about quality tourists, we are talking about looking at quality seriously and we need to build it up. It is not a game that will be played for two or three days,” Khaunte said. TTAG president Nilesh Shah, who spoke earlier, said that Goa needs to focus on brand building and digital marketing, which targets high-spending tourists. However, Shah warned that the current spate of crimes against women and fraud could spoil Goa’s reputation. He also said that touts, drugs and prostitution will ruin Goa’s reputation as a family destination. “There should be no compromise on law enforcement and strict action must be taken when dealing with such situations to send a message that Goa is safe,” Shah said.
Panaji: Fast-tracking revival of tourism industry in the state after the pandemic, Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte on Sunday said that registration of tourism activities at the department will be made online soon. Khaunte said that all activities related to tourism in the state will go online to facilitate ease of doing business to stakeholders.Khaunte was speaking at a late evening function organised for the 34thinstallation of the president and managing committee of the Travel & Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) at Dona Paula.“EoDB (ease of doing business) is crucial. Business people should focus on business. All renewals will be online. End to end support will be provided and there will be no harassment to stakeholder,” promised Khaunte. With hotels in the state facing shortage of skilled staff, the minister added that skilling and support will be provided to local youth to make them employable.The function saw the induction of the new managing committee with Nilesh Shah.Khaunte was the chief guest on the occasion, while the guest of honour was Puneet Goel, Chief Secretary and Ravi Dhawan, Secretary Tourism special guest.A five year term for excise licence, 50% reduction in fees for C & D category hotels, deferred electricity payments, and extension of panchayat fees, were some of the achievements of TTAG during the year 2021-22.Ganesh Gaonkar, chairman of GTDC, Ralph De Souza, president of GCCI, Menino D’Souza, director of Tourism Department, Rajan Satardekar, director of transport department, Gagan Malik, director of Goa Airport, officials of GTDC and the department of tourism were present.
