Goa once considered to be No. 1 travel destination amongst the foreigners is no longer seems to retain its charm to lure more foreign tourists. According to the report published by Himanshi Dhawan in Times of India “Latest data shows that Goa has dropped from the top 10 states in 2014 with a little more than half a million foreign tourist visitors. Incidentally, the number of foreign tourists visiting the beach destination has increased from 0.49 million in 2013 to 0.51 million in 2014”.
According to the report from Union Tourism Ministry the number of foreigners visiting to India has increased to 22.57 million in 2014 compared to 19.95 million in 2013. The states that have been topped the graph is Tamil Nadu that attracted 4.66 million while Maharashtra next in line received 4.39 million tourists followed by Uttar Pradesh with 2.91 million visitors and on fourth place Delhi with 2.32 million visitors and Rajasthan on fifth place with 1.53 million visitors. Surprisingly India’s most preferred international destination Kerala stood on 7th Rank with 0.92 million foreigner visitors.
Sharat Dhall, president of Yatra.com said that “There has been a significant impact of the downturn in the Russian economy on Goa. There are also issues of safety and law and order that have come up in the recent months,” he was talking about the decline in Goa’s popularity in international tourism market. But he also mentioned that this is just a temporary jinx “Goa’s allure has not diminished. Every survey that we conduct, irrespective of the season, Goa remains one of the top three destinations for foreign and domestic travelers,” he added.
The sources from travel industry has confirmed that Maharashtra and Delhi managed to attract large number of foreign tourist due to the international airports at both the cities serves the country and it also amounts to high number of business travelers. TN and UP are probably receiving a large number of foreign travelers of Indian origin who visit their state for business and leisure, they say.
Although there is dip in worldwide travel scenario but India’s domestic market continues to excel registering the growth of almost 12%. The total number of domestic tourist engaged in inbound travel has increased to 1145 in 2014 from 1282 million in year 2013. Tamil Nadu alone managed to cater to 327.6 million domestic tourists while other states followed with Uttar Pradesh with 182.8 million domestic visitors, Karnataka (118.3 million), Maharashtra (94.1 million) followed by Andhra Pradesh with 93.3 million visitors.
Looking at the changing traveling trends of tourists the first thing that strikes into mind, Is Goa is losing its popularity as the typical party destination? What is the reason that Goa, which was supposed to be as one of the most preferred travel destination, now losing its popularity? Goa lacking behind not only in international market but even domestic travelers don’t prefer Goa against the other available options. Please do leave your valuable comments and suggestions on this issue.
Source: TNN
