Goa wooing Chinese tourists to revive foreign tourist inflow

In a bid to shore up the falling tourism potential, stake-holders in Goa tourism are looking at China to tide over the slump in arrival of foreign tourists. A six-member delegation from China is scheduled to arrive here later this week to prepare content and guide the Goa tourism department and stake-holders on how to promote the coastal state in Chinese markets, which is a virgin territory for the state's tourism industry.

Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president Savio Messias on Wednesday said that there is a downfall in international tourist arrivals in Goa by almost 30-40 per cent. "There are several factors responsible for this phenomenon, and one of them is shutting down of Thomas Cook, UK, which was flying charters in Goa," he said.

Messias said that China offers a lot of potential for Goa markets. "Chinese usually go around in huge groups and when they come to India, their visit is restricted to places like Agra in North India or Kerala in the South," he said.

The TTAG chief, who had participated in a Travel Mart at Chengdu city in China, said many Chinese are unaware of Goa. "Promotions in China are different from the rest of the world. They don't use Facebook, Google or Whatsapp. We will have to design websites in the Chinese language to reach to them," he said.

Goa attracts around four lakh international visitors every year, whose number has gone down significantly in the last two years. Russia and Britain are two traditional markets for Goa.