Panjim, Nov 24: Here’s a huge year ending cheer for Goa! The 5th biennial Hotelivate State Ranking Survey for Tourism done in association with the World Travel & Tourism Council-India Initiative (WTTC-II) has ranked Goa 3rd in the list of top five states in tourism. While Delhi and Maharashtra are at the top two places, Goa stands third followed by Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.
The survey which looked at States from the hospitality industry’s standpoint considered 11 parameters namely: state expenditure on tourism, number of tourist visits, number of branded hotel rooms, GSDP per capital, literacy, aircraft movement, ease of doing business, urbanization, road and rail network, marketing campaigns and some intangible aspects.
In the survey report, Goa is placed among the top three positions in four parameters: State Expenditure on Tourism, Presence of Branded Hotel Rooms, GSDP per Capita and Urbanization.
The reports states that Goa has the second-highest density of Branded Hotel Rooms in India, and has consistently been maintaining its rank over the last four surveys. Both these aspects highlight Goa's attractiveness as a tourist destination from the perspective of tourists, hoteliers and the government alike.
Unlike Delhi or Haryana, Goa being one of India's foremost leisure destinations, its branded hotel room supply, showed a growth by 14.0% since the last edition of this report. The report states that this it is an indication of the lucrative nature of the market for the hotel industry.
As far as State expenditure on tourism, Goa leads the states in terms of tourism spend in 2016-17 with 0.673% of its expenditure allocated for travel and tourism. Moving up from rank 3 to rank 1, Goa has displaced Sikkim which previously maintained rank 1 for the past three editions of this report.
Under Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), Goa, Delhi and Sikkim continue to maintain the top three positions in the country. As far as urbanization, Delhi, Goa and Mizoram ranked 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
Hon’ble Minister for Tourism, Mr. Manohar Ajgaonkar said, “Goa Tourism is in the spotlight again for achieving success in various tourism parameters. It should be our endeavour to break rank and get to the top and work on improving in those parameters where we are lagging behind. Our focus should be to increase and improve our infrastructure, investments and attract more tourists to Goa. I congratulate all the teams working in Goa Tourism and GTDC for their contributions in helping Goa Tourism reach its goals. In the coming years, Goa Tourism will be a leading tourism destination in all sectors.”
Hon’ble Chairman of Goa Tourism Development Corporation, Mr. Nilesh Cabral said, “The year 2017 is drawing to a close on a successful note yet again. It has always been the endeavour of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation to work in sync with various segments of tourism whether infrastructure, accommodation, tourism activities, tourism related development and so on. It is encouraging to see that the State’s tourism industry is faring well and is taking on its competitors with flying colours. I am optimistic that in the near future, we will break new records and rank high in all tourism segments.”
