The unregistered hotels in the state of are not authorised to take the bookings and if found guilty a strict action will be taken against them says the tourism minister of Goa.
The tourism have started booming in the state of Goa from the last couple of week as Goa considered to be the safest tourism destination during the Pandemic with 100% vaccination.
The boom in the flow of tourists has prompted many unauthorised hotels and guest houses to mushroom in the state resulting into the lose in revenue for the tourism department of Goa.
The revenue of the Tourism department in the state is dependent on the business coming from the hotels that are registered with the state department. But many small hotels and guest houses do not follow the registration process and indulge into the unauthorised business.
According to the report published in the Deccan Herald on Monday the tourism minister of Goa, Babu Azgaonkar had told the media that his department will take strict action against the people running unauthorised hotels and guest houses in Goa.
“My department will be issuing a strict notice to such unregistered hotels operating in Goa,” said Azgaonkar adding that his department will be taking stringent action against such establishments that is not registered with the Department of Tourism. “We will try to bring them under the purview of regulations in way to carry out the business. Only the hotels registered with the Tourism Department will be allowed to take bookings.”
He also urged the tourists to do the bookings only in the authorised hotels and guest houses registered with the Tourism Department, although there is no mean for the tourists to distinguish between the authorised from unauthorised.
Earlier the department had averred that there was a proliferation of revenue due to the small hotels and guest houses being put out on the aggregator’s app and many unregistered private villas were available to book leading to the loss of revenue to the department.
The Revenue Loss to The Tourism Department
There is a huge loss of revenue reported in Goa in the year 2019 (pre-covid scenario) wherein the actual count of the tourists entered into the state was to the tune of 8 million while only half of them supposed to have done the bookings with the department approved hotels.
Nearly 4 million tourists have put up in the unregistered hotels and guest houses in Goa leading auto a huger loss of revenue to the department and state exchequer.
Finally to overcome he loses during the current tourism season the department has decided to take a strict action against all the unauthorised hotels and guest houses in Goa. “Our department has already issued the notices to all such establishments and the appropriate action will be take against all,” said the tourism minister.
The Tourism Minister also said the Goa government was in the process of putting together a marketing blitz in order to attract visitors to Goa, in wake of the fact that Goa was likely to complete 100 per cent coverage of both Covid vaccine doses by the end of this month.
“We are preparing a media plan and advertising (campaign) we will announce that now. We want good tourists to come to Goa,” he said, adding that music festivals would also be allowed in the state during the festive season of Christmas and New Year, with complete observance of the Covid SOPs.
