PANAJI: The slow cave hospitality industry was flooded with assistance after the announcement of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Thursday that he would start giving a fresh tourist visa to foreigners who visited India through rented flights from 152% of the Indian charter business for receiving 2-2.5 lakh tourist charter every year.
During the past year, Goa Travel and Tourism Association (TTAG) has lobby hard with various authorities for special permission for rented flights to land in Goa.
It has even proposed a memorandum to the Union Tourism Minister Kishhan Reddy during his visit to the country two weeks ago, requested that the aircraft charter be allowed to restart.
President Tttag Nilesh Shah said he was happy to hear about the central announcement.
“The opening of the Charter market will help all tourism stakeholders; big and small.
Even now, more than 2,100 small hotels are not open,” he told toi and added that the association was awaiting clarity in the process to be followed to issue five free visas of Lakh, and Declaration of standard operating procedures (SOP) for international (SOP) explorers.
While the first Charter to Goa generally landed in the third week of October, the Chief Operating Officer at Sei Travels, Ernest Dias, said the first of the tourism season could now arrive in the first week of November from Russia.
“There is a lot of preparation that must be made.
We need to get a parking slot (plane), so we see the first week of November for the arrival of the charter.
Even though it will be the end of the month, it is better than having nothing,” said Dias.
Charter tourism in Goa began in the 1970s, with the emergence of flower children.
While their arrival spur charter from England, Finland, Poland Germany and Norway, the entry of Russia began in the 1990s.
Until the start of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the majority of charter tourists who had landed in Goa came from Russian destinations.
In addition, the state also received Charters from Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
MHA has stated that non-charter foreign tourists will be able to travel to India from November 15.
All Covid protocols are notified by the Ministry of Health and family welfare that must be followed by foreign tourists and operators who will take them to India.
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Goa receives a total of 8-9 lakh foreign tourists every year.