PANAJI: Despite the best efforts by the tourism department and the hospitality sector to attract tourists to Goa, the state might not be able to attract the same number of foreign tourists through charter flights this year as compared to the last year, especially during the upcoming festive season.

As per the charter schedule for the month of December at the Dabolim airport, only 95 flights have been scheduled to land this month as against 119 last year, thereby showing a drop of 24 flights. The state had received 615 charter flights last year and this year the tourism industry sources
said that the number could just reach 550 flights.
Though the tourist season began this year with a promise with 4,120 foreign tourists coming to the state in the month of October as against 2,837 in the previous year, the number of tourists arriving in November declined considerably with only 22,180 foreign tourists coming to Goa as against 25,788 during the same month
last year, recording a fall of 3.608 passengers.
In the first two months of the season this year 26,300 foreign tourists arrived in the state by 108 charter flights. The figure last year was 28,625. The overall fall this year for the first two months though is just 2,325.
The number of flights landing this year during the first two months has also come down with 108 charter flights (20 in October and 88 in November) landing at the Dabolim airport as against 115 (13 in October and 102 in November) in the previous year. As expected by the tourism sector the number of Russians arriving in the state is more as compared to last year. In the first two months 9,569 charter tourists from Russia arrived in Goa by 56 flights (19 in October and 37 in November). The number of Russian tourists last year was marginally lower at 9,425 and the number of flights was 41.
There appeared to be a big fall in number of charter tourists from United Kingdom with 9,226 tourists arriving from there by 32 flights in November this year. Last year 14,635 British tourists had arrived in Goa by 50 flights during the month of November. The fall in tourists from UK as compared to last year is 5,409. As in the previous year this year too no flight came from United Kingdom in the month of October.
As per the schedule this year the state would receive 30 flights from United Kingdom as against 51 last year. The number of tourists coming by charter flights is also likely to be much lesser, said sources in the tourism industry. However, on the other hand the number of flights from Russia and other countries of the erstwhile federation is expected to match last year’s figure of 36.
Besides, there is also a fall in the number of tourists from Switzerland (222 by two flights this year as against 408 by three flights in the last year in the first two months of the current season), Germany (760 tourists by three flights as against 2004 by 10 flights during the same period). On the other hand the number of tourist arrival from Norway (1,641 as against 1,459) improved marginally as against the October-November period in previous year along with Finland (847 against 636).
With there being a sharp drop in the room rates, the tourism industry, however, is expecting the situation to improve in the later half of this month and in the beginning of the New Year.
Meanwhile, Mr Swapnil Naik, the director of Tourism, has said that he would announce the date for draw of lots for allotment of shacks by Monday, the moment he receives the order of the Supreme Court. He said that he was not aware of the contents of the Apex Court’s order.