Finally, the day has come when the Hospitality Industry in Goa will kickstart once again. According to the statement made by Goa Tourism Minister Babu Ajagaonkar, the hotels registered with the Goa Tourism will be allowed to open from tomorrow.
According to Ajagaonkar, there are around 250 hotels that have resisted with the Tourism Department and the Government has taken to decision to allow all of them to resume the business from 2nd July 2020.
“We are in the process of starting the hotels in Goa,” said Ajagaonkar adding that “We are allowing all the 250 hotels to commence the business from tomorrow, and the move has been already approved by the cabinet.”
Now, once the tourism activities are allowed, mainly domestic tourist will start flocking into the state and most of them will come via road and according to the Tourism Minister, they have made the provisions of testing the people for Covid-19 at the border.
“We will check if they have test certificate with them at the entry point, which is valid for the 48 hours and in case they do not have a certificate we will be guiding them to the COVID test centre in Goa,” he added,
Another things that the tourism minister has put the light on, is about the booking. According to him, no tourist without the prior booking will be allowed to enter in Goa.
“We will not allow the tourist to enter the state in the absence of prior booking,” said the minister adding that in case of no booking they must have their second home here or their relatives staying in the state. “Booking in the hotels only registered with the Goa Tourism,” he added.
‘We will not allow the other Illegal operators like OYO to operate in the state’ said the minister.
The hoteliers operating in the state without the permission from Goa Tourism department will be liable to pay the fines as well undergo the imprisonment, said the minister.
When asked about the resuming of Bars and Restaurants in Goa the Ajagaonkar said that it is his personal interest to start the bars in Goa.
“My personal interest and opinion is that the Bars and Restaurants in the state should resume soon,” he said adding that maintaining a social distancing.
Meanwhile, the section 144 is already in force in Goa, When asked how tourists will have the freedom of movement when section 144 is the force he said, “people are bored staying at home for months together and that is why we have decided to start the tour to bring that the change in the atmosphere.”
The hospitality industry is facing a huge setback due to the closure and now that the tourism Minister has made an announcement to reopen the hotels there are no tourists and manpower to resume the business.
