Does Goa urgently need a visa-on-arrival facility?

While the tourism season in Goa is on an upswing, the Goa’s tourism industry strongly believes that the state could ring the cash registers much more if the government had to introduce the Visa-on-arrival facility in Goa immediately.

Goa has so far received 23 lakh tourists this year including both domestic and international tourists thus touching the highest number of charter flights. The figure is expected to rise by the end of May with domestic tourist supply inflow supplementing the figures. The expected figure this year is 27 lakh tourists according to the Tourism department

The number of Foreign individual travelers(FITs) has also shown a steady increase .However it is felt that Visa on arrival facility could easily spike up the inflows of tourists. Also competition being fierce in the region, such a facility is expected to benefit tourism in Goa.

It is also believed that during the crisis in Egypt, many tourists bound for that country shifted their plans to Goa. However such displacement of tourists from their original plans to Goa could have been more fruitful had there been a visa on arrival facility.

The European inflow of tourists has been steadily increasing as also a specific rise in tourists from Britain, Denmark and Sweden have shown interest in Goa. Russian tourists have however shown a good increase with that number alone accounting for about 42,700 tourists visiting Goa this year itself.

The Travel and Tourism Authority of Goa (TTAG) have also been pursuing the issue of visa on arrival with the central government of India to help the state cash in on the tourism boom.