Hit by the dropping footfall of tourists mostly of foreign travellers this season,Goa tourism minister Manohar Azgaonkar has said that his ministry is considering regulating food prices in restaurant and beach shacks and also keeping check on online booking sites that artificially escalate hotel and lodging room rates.
“We will be cracking down on those who raise food prices during the season. If people have to eat pricey food, why they should travel here? The prices of dishes cannot be above Rs 500. There has to be a limit. We will fine them if it goes beyond the limits,” as said by Goa tourism minister Manoha Ajgaonkar on Thursday.
“We are going to call the representatives of online room booking services. We do not want them here if they do this,” Mr Ajgaonkar said, adding the issue of online portals artificially hiking hotel room rates was discussed at a meeting with tourism ministry officials on Wednesday.
“It was discussed yesterday. They show only two rooms (on online portals) and they escalate the prices. They do not show other rooms. Customers also do not have access to the hotel numbers. So they cannot cross-check,” Ajgaonkar said.
Without specifying what his ministry intends to do to change the situation, Azgaonkar said, Goa has to be developed into no. 1 international destination, but not by destroying it. “Goa is God’s gift. It’s beautiful. Not just Indians, but people across the world like to visit it,” he said during an event to launch Raj Bhavan tours.
Travel and tourism industry stakeholders have claimed that tourist numbers to Goa, which had attracted more than seven million tourists last season, had dropped noticeably this season.
While the Tourism Ministry has claimed that it has not tabulated the tourist arrival figures for the year 2018 yet, Savio Messias ,the president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa has said that the dip was as much as 30 per cent, adding that most hotels in the state were under-booked during the festive season, when bookings peak.
Goa’s tourism season usually stretches from October to March every year where as the best time to visit Goa is between November and March when the Goa weather is beautifully pleasant & lucid with a cool sea breeze blowing through.
