The tourism industry in Goa started reviving from the month of August when hotels started getting full with the domestic tourists and destination weddings taking place in Goa. But the arrival foreigners always remained special for the stakeholders of the industry and finally that good news has arrived.
According to the reports, the first flight from Kazakistan will be landing in Goa on the 7th December making the debut of foreign tourists landing in Goa.
Goa gets the tourists coming down from all over the world but mainly from Russia and UK but this time due to increase in the cases of Covid-19 in Russia and UK the flights had been delayed and the first flight from UK will land in Goa on 13th December.
There will be total 4 flights scheduled to arrive from the UK on the 13th December, two each from Manchester and Gatwick will arrive later on four times a week till the end of March 2022.
Meanwhile the unprecedented flow of domestic tourism is keeping the spirits high of the stakeholders but the landing of international flights will boot the spirit of industry to the next level.
President of Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) Nilesh Shah has confirmed that four charter flights – two each from Manchester and Gatwick – will arrive on December 13.
According to him, there will be a flow of 15000 to 20000 tourists from UK per month. “We are expected to get 15,000 to 20,000 UK tourists to Goa per month,” Shah added while speaking to the local daily, Herald.
After looking its borders for more than a year and half finally Indian reopened it for the fully vaccinated people and Goa is one of the worst affected places in the country due to the lose oil tourism business is now getting ready to embrace the tourism back.
Besides the UK, the tourism industry in Goa looks for the good response from Russian tourists who mainly contribute to high chunk of revenue to the industry.
The rise in covid cases has further delayed the flights from Russia but TTAG is positive about the resumption of flights from mid of December.
“There is no clarity on the arrival of Russian charter tourists because people are reluctant to travel owing to COVID-19 wave. They are more than willing to restart tourism but the virus has paused their travel temporarily. We expect charter flights from mid-December though,” he said.
The State highly depends on charter tourists as the annual six month long season begins from October.
While there was a time when Goa received over a thousand charters during the season, there were zero charters last year owing to the pandemic that hit all the countries. With countries slowly reopening their borders for travel, India has also joined the league with restrictions.
In Goa, the stakeholders are also expected to earn good income through destination weddings. Shah said many starred hotels are booked with wedding commencing from Nov 19, 2021.
