Chartered flight arrivals in Goa rising

Goa tourism industry, backbone of the state's economy, is expecting a big jump in chartered flight arrivals this season. Dabolim airport has been prepared for more such landings.

The airport will be allowing night operations from this season including late night and early morning operations. "As against the earlier policy of allowing restricted weekend (Friday to Sunday) slots for chartered flights, the airport will allow early morning and late night slots round the week," highly placed sources in the Airport Authority of India (AAI) told Business Standard.

The season has already begun with the arrival of Spain Air flights in the first week of August and the next one to arrive will be Britannia flight by month end. Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) has estimated that the number of chartered flights will cross 800 this season.

"Particularly with flights from Russian increasing, the charter season this year too will be extended beyond the first week of May," said Elvis Gomes, MD, GTDC.

Apart from traditional European charters, Goa this year is expecting a lot of flights from the Gulf countries, Russia and other countries. From 419 chartered flights in 2000-01, it shot up to 690 in 2004-05.

The arrival of chartered tourists has also shown a significant increase with the number of tourists per flight going up considerably in the last couple of years. From 1.16 lakh in 2000-01, the number of chartered tourist arrival touched 1.58 lakh last season, according to the official statistics.

The state also witnessed a major growth in overall arrivals last year with a record 24.50 lakh tourists coming here. While the domestic tourist arrival went up to 20.85 lakh (a rise of 20 per cent) in 2004-05 from 17.25 lakh in 2003-04, the foreign tourist segment witnessed a 15.5 per cent growth during the corresponding period with the arrivals going up from 3.14 lakh to 3.63 lakh.

Hotels in the premium segment last year reported over 10 per cent average rise in ARR (average room rate), an indicator of revenue boom in the hospitality sector.

Apart from the brief setback on account of heavy rains in Mumbai resulting in a lot of flight cancellations, the hospitality industry has done extremely well during the off season and is very optimistic about the season ahead.

Ralph de Souza, Tourist Committee chairman of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said, "During the traditional off-season (monsoon season), hoteliers in Goa on an average report an occupancy rate of well over 55 per cent with business coming from corporates, business conferences and conventions in five-star resorts."

It has been estimated that the occupancy rate of hotels and resorts would be 100 per cent during the peak tourist season. "It is unbelievable to know that hotels have been booked till February end. It's 100 per cent bookings from November onwards," Gomes informed.

The tourism industry has welcomed tourism minister Wilfred de Souza's plans to focus on hinterland tourism, eco-tourism, pilgrim tourism and adventure tourism to attract more 'paying tourists'.

The project proposes to promote and showcase Goa's cultural heritage. The importance of promoting hinterland and village tourism is to generate yet another avenue for attracting tourists to this paradise.