Tourism dept to roll out online approval, registration system within 1 wk: Khaunte

Times of India | 7 months ago | 25-04-2022 | 01:11 am

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.

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Times of India | 3 hours ago | 29-11-2022 | 02:40 am

Times of India

3 hours ago | 29-11-2022 | 02:40 am

New Delhi: The new international airport at Mopa is likely to become operational in the first week of January, possibly on the fifth, sources said.CM Pramod Sawant had said at the Times Now Summit last week that PM Narendra Modi could tentatively inaugurate it on December 11.“It takes about a month to make an airport operational after the inauguration,” sources said. “Airlines need to mark on tickets to and from Goa which airport the flight will operate from, Dabolim or Mopa. Also, CISF has to move in and take over security of the facility, which takes around 15 days. People who have bought tickets to and from Goa for the coming months will be informed by airlines via SMS in case their flights will now land at or depart from Mopa.” GMR Goa International Airport Limited (GGIAL), which will operate the airport, is looking at January 5 as Mopa’s opening date. On October 26, the directorate general of civil aviation had issued the aerodrome licence to the Airport after a series of checkposts, thus, the airport was certified to be safe for handling flights. Airlines like IndiGo have indicated that they will operate from both the existing Dabolim airport and the new one at Mopa.The Mopa airport is keenly awaited as Dabolim, a Naval airport, has limited slots for scheduled commercial flights. For years, this has meant flights during limited hours of the day — and hence high fares in peak travel season — for passengers. Being a 100% civilian airport, Mopa will allow more flights to Goa — at least doubling from current numbers.The airports economic regulatory authority (AERA) this August issued an ad hoc tariff order for the GMR-developed Mopa airport. For the first few years, second airports that will soon start opening in Indian cities/regions could be relatively more expensive than the single ones operating there so far. The reason: A majority of them will need to compete for traffic with the existing ones. When Bengaluru and Hyderabad got new airports in 2009 and 2008, respectively, the exiting ones — HAL and Begumpet — were closed for commercial flights. AERA’s ad hoc aeronautical charges tariff order for Mopa includes a user development fee (UDF) of Rs 450 and Rs 1,100 per departing domestic and international passenger respectively. The GMR group that has developed Mopa had proposed a UDF of Rs 980 and Rs 1,500. The authority felt “the proposal of the airport operator is on the higher side and needs to be moderated”. The authority has decided to allow GGIAL to charge the ad hoc tariff till March 31, 2023, or if the regular tariff order is issued before that.

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Times of India | 3 hours ago | 29-11-2022 | 02:40 am

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3 hours ago | 29-11-2022 | 02:40 am

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Times of India | 3 hours ago | 29-11-2022 | 02:40 am

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Times of India | 3 hours ago | 29-11-2022 | 02:40 am

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3 hours ago | 29-11-2022 | 02:40 am

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Times of India | 1 day ago | 28-11-2022 | 04:17 am

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1 day ago | 28-11-2022 | 04:17 am

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