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This year’s Goa International Travel Mart (GITM) held from April 2-4 at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium at Taleigaon, created not only a diverse networking platform for the travel trade fraternity in India and abroad but also raised several issues concerning the state. The issue of security was highlighted during the inaugural ceremony, wherein R K Srivastava, principal secretary, Government of Goa, spoke on the need to reinvent the state and also focus on safety so as to retain its position as one of India’s most premium international destinations. Other requirements that were also touched upon included – exploring new and niche markets, promoting sustainability and restricting mass tourism.
To position Goa as a year-long destination across all market segments, Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) focussed on promoting various aspects of the state. Apart from promoting its casinos, wildlife, folk dance, popular beaches, festivals to name a few, the corporation is looking at positioning Goa as a religious destination. For the same, GTDC will be introducing a new product, which is the decennial exposition of the sacred relics of St Francis Xavier at Old Goa from November this year. Adding to this product are other places of religious significance like the Mahadev Temple, Tambdi Surla; Safa Masjid, to name a few. As for the wedding market, GTDC is developing the Tiracol fort into a wedding resort. “This is a private initiative, but the property will be owned by the government and will boast of seven rooms,” mentioned Nikhil U Desai, managing director, GTDC.
In 2013, Goa recorded 3.11 million tourists arrivals, a 12 per cent growth from the previous year. Half a million were international visitors which included 160,000 from Europe and 144,000 from the UK. “The visits to the state are either at the beginning or at the end of the year. 40 per cent arrivals are through chartered flights and 60 per cent are FITs,” stated Desai. With growing tourism numbers, infrastructural developments have become a major requirement for the state. The corporation has been allocated a tourism budget of Rs 150 crore with a major focus on developing the state’s infrastructure. Elaborating on the infrastructural projects, Desai stated, “Early May this year we will be starting night patrolling at the beaches. At present we have a dual system of life guarding and have deployed police personnel at the beaches. We will also employ an integrated scientific method of beach cleaning, which will be put in place very soon. We are also developing parking lots, lighting, working on road expansion through public funding. Work on projects for developing theme parks, convention centres, marinas through PPP model has already started. We are also coming up with eco toilets by October- November this year. The state government has also appointed a Spanish-based consulting firm to develop a master plan to help Goa grow holistically which will be ready in eight to 12 months.”
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Suggesting alternatives
The GITM concluded two panel discussions on different themes. The first panel discussion on ‘Reinventing Goa as a premier investment and tourist destination in an ecologically aware world’ was moderated by Ajay Prakash, immediate past president, Travel Agents Federation of India and chief executive, Nomad Travels. The panelists included Desai; Nandini Sahai, director, The International Centre Goa; KD Row, past president, Travel and Tourism Association of Goa; and Ralph de Sousa, group chairman, de Souza Group. The discussion started off with Prakash pointing out the need to regulate the carrying capacity of the state to sustain its natural resources. The carrying capacity could, however, be regulated by targeting niche clientèle, pointed out Row. “Knowledge and intellectual, content based activity can propel tourism in Goa. We need to position Goa as a true driver of change by hosting high-end events and conferences, inviting buyers and creating meaningful content for the participants,” mentioned Row. He also highlighted the need to actively engage the Goan community in tourism; focus on repeat customers; design and create alternative tourism initiatives; promote wellness, food, golf and water sports tourism; and transform the state into an aviation hub to attract leading airlines.
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The same was reiterated by de Sousa who spoke on targeting short and long-term, new but niche markets. He also came up with suggestions of transforming the Old Secretariat building in Panjim into an art centre, introducing a scheme to promote homestays. Desai informed the audience about the state government clearing the proposal to have an Institute of Hotel Management in Goa and their interest in the South East Asian market and new countries in the US and Europe. Sharing a few statistical data was Sahai. She informed, “The number of tourists to Goa has increased from 7.7 lakh in 1985 to around 31.2 lakh in 2013. Last financial year, 987 chartered flights arrived from around nine international destinations wherein 742 were from Russia and 150 from the UK bringing around 1.3 lakh international tourists. This year around 1000 chartered flights are expected to arrive. This has put pressure on sustaining the ecology of the state.” She suggested several practices like setting up garbage disposal agencies, making rainwater harvesting mandatory, opening the hinterland to de-congest the city, developing waterways for transportation, going upmarket and changing the marketing strategies.
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Effective marketing
The session held on the topic ‘Image building through out-of-the-box marketing concepts for private and government sector’, was moderated by Carl Vaz, chairman and CEO, Charson Advisory Services. The panel members included Sachin Nene, area manager – India, Air Arabia; Kiran Yadav, chairman and managing director, Success Try Angles; and Kapil Kumar, director, School of Tourism Hospitality Service Management, Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi. Vaz initiated the discussion by suggesting the need for adopting the PPP model to market Goa through social media campaigns and creating various engaging applications to bring in tourists. Giving an instance of this, Vaz stated, “Kerala Tourism made their tourism application accessible on both Android and iPhone. The application has a function called ‘What’s Near Me’ which uses the GPS system to track restaurants nearby and direct you in that direction.”
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Nene pointed out the importance of tapping the MICE segment from Russia, CIS and the Middle East. He expressed his support to GTDC to organise and facilitate B2B events in Goa from these markets. Kumar spoke on engaging the locals while framing marketing strategies, while Yadav highlighted the significance of creating a specific, focused, targeted marketing and brand building exercise to cater to demanding customers.
