PANAJI: The Minister for Tourism, Mr Francisco Xavier Pacheco on Tuesday informed the House in a written reply to the unstarred question that the recommendation of the Tourism Master Plan as regards formation of a State Tourism Board could not be accepted for Goa being a small state and the scope for tourism development was limited.

“Secondly, the statutory powers required to be allotted to such a board are debated,” he added.
Replying to a related question from the Fatorda MLA, Mr Damodar Naik, the Minister for Tourism further informed that though the State Tourism Commission/State Tourism Board as suggested in the Tourism Master Plan has so far not been set up, the department of tourism is planning and implementing the schemes on its own through the PWD/electricity department, and project cell of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation.
Acknowledging that the Tourism Master Plan for Goa 2011 and Tourism Policy are still in force, the Minister for Tourism further stated that the project cost of TMP 2011 to be implemented by 2021 is estimated at Rs 5,724 crore.
“The estimated amount to be spent on basic infrastructure is Rs 5,250 crore, on tourism infrastructure is Rs 69 crore, on tourism product development is Rs 312 crore, on human resource development is Rs 25 crore, and on promotion and marketing is Rs 68 crore.”
In another written reply, the Minister for Tourism stated that there has been a drop in the arrival of tourists by chartered flights to Goa. “Altogether 1,69,836 tourists arrived by chartered flights between October 2006 and May 2007, in all 1,75,951 tourists arrived by chartered flights between October 2007 and May 2008, and 1,45,428 tourists arrived by the same mode between October 2008 and May 2009,” he noted.
“However, the number of domestic tourists visiting Goa has increased from 20,20,416, in the year 2008 to 21,27,063, in the year 2009,” Mr Pacheco concluded.