Goa, one of the top beach and nightlife tourism destinations in the country, recorded more than five million tourist arrivals for the first time in 2015, the state tourism department said on Monday.
"A total of 52,97,902 tourists visited Goa in 2015 which includes 47,56,422 domestic tourists and 5,41,480 foreign tourists," the official statement said.
Statistics quoted by the tourism department also said while Goa overall saw 30.54 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in 2015, domestic tourist arrivals were up by 34 percent and foreign tourist arrivals up by 5.4 percent.
"Foreign tourist arrivals from Britain, Russia, the UAE, the US, Portugal, South Africa and many other countries have shown an increase in arrivals to the state despite continued recession and crises that hit the European regions," the statement said.
"Tourist arrivals during the monsoons (June, July and August 2015) recorded a 22 percent increase as against an 18 percent increase in 2014," the statement also said.
"Despite various negative geo-political situations across the globe, these have not hit Goa tourism in any way... Our new initiatives, marketing and promoting is showing substantial results and we are optimistic that tourists will choose Goa as their destination for holidaying," Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar has said.