Goa registered a record arrival of 27.8 lakh tourists in 2012-13, including 4.5 lakh foreigners, as against 26.7 lakh in 2011-12, including 4.45 lakh foreigners, showing an increase of 4.4 per cent in the arrivals.
Sources in the State Tourism Department said that Goa also witnessed an increase in arrival of chartered flights. According to Goa Tourism Department statistics, 987 chartered flights carrying 2.15 lakh tourists arrived this year as against 910 flights with 1.69 lakh tourists in 2011-12.
Chartered flights arrived in Goa from nine international destinations from October 2012 to mid-May 2013.
About 742 chartered flights arrived from Russia followed by 152 flights from the United Kingdom.
Similarly, the number of cruise ship arrivals in Goa has also seen an increase with 25 vessels carrying 22,233 passengers in 2012-13, as against 20 vessels carrying 11,946 passengers in 2010-11.
‘Delighted’
“In 2012-13, Goa did extremely well, better than previous years. We are delighted to see the upswing in the arrivals of domestic and foreign tourists, which touched an all-time high,” said Goa Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar on Wednesday.
He said Goa had emerged as a preferred destination for MICE, weddings and also leisure. “Our positive steps such as introduction of water sports policy, security force on Goan beaches, improvement of tourism infrastructure, marketing and promotional efforts, have paid good dividends,” he said.
He agreed that for a sustained inflow, there was always scope for improvement. “We are working hard to further the cause of tourists’ comfort in Goa. We are having a new outlook towards renew surge in the tourism industry during the current year,” said Mr. Parulekar.
