Influencers took Goa for a ride, said Tourism Minister as he clears air with fresh tourist data

The minister pointed out that tourism is one of the biggest contributors to the state’s GDP (gross domestic product), in terms of 16.43 percent and accounts roughly about 35 percent of the employment.

Looming under the controversy of losing popularity among tourists, Goa’s tourism minister Rohan Khaunte said all is well. Posts by many influencers of deserted beaches, empty hotels in Goa flooded the internet last December, a peak tourism period for the destination.

“We didn't want to respond to every social media influencer who took Goa for a ride in the last quarter. The issues raised, we will address it. However, the way they (influencers) took it up was something, which we need to condemn,” he said.

It had all started when an X user Ramanuj Mukherjee’s post on 'declining' tourism in Goa went viral. “In the last quarter (of 2024), we had continuous attacks. We tried to first reasonably put things together and answer all the questions put up through social media.

When people started talking about declining footfalls, we were confused, as we knew from the stakeholders that the business was very comfortable. We still do
not know why this particular unverified data came into the picture,” said Khaunte referring to Mukherjee’s post, according to which foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) dropped to 1.5 million in 2023 from 6 million in 2014. The post had also noted that domestic tourists stood at 8 million in 2023 versus 5.5 million tourists in 2014.

“We know that there are concerns and issues but it is not only with Goa. We needed to revisit and check what the numbers were. So,when it came to December, we had to decide whether to counter and talk about it at that particular time or wait for our facts, figures and then talk about it,” the tourism minister said, who in a press conference on January 13 shared data of tourists who visited Goa in the last two years.

In 2023, 81,75,460 domestic and 4,52,702 international tourists travelled to Goa with the total coming to 86,28,162.Last year, 99,41,285 domestic and 4,67,911 international travellers visited the destination, amounting to a total of 1,04,09,196.

“Goa is performing much better than the national average. The destination has great resilience and adaptability in a competitive tourism landscape and as a year round destination; we are also looking at increasing off-season business,” the minister said, adding that the Indian middle class is driving off-season tourism as they are taking shorter vacations.

He added that while FTA growth is on the lower side at 3 percent, it is better than industry average. “If I compare my FTAs in 2019 vis-a-vis now, in spite of Asia being at minus 18 percent, our growth has been better than the national average. We are at almost 50 percent recovery of pre-Covid numbers.”

The geopolitical issues are affecting the recovery,he added.“We were trying to connect with Israel but there was a war. Due to the war in Russia, it
has still not given us the numbers that we were expecting. At the same time, we have started connecting to newer markets. With our friends who are in the
charter line, we have been connecting to Poland, we have connected to Uzbekistan, and we have connected to Kazakhstan. This year, we look at connecting with more countries.”

In the last couple of months, many influencers have taken to social media comparing Goa with international destinations like Sri Lanka, Thailand, among others.“As a state, we are being compared to a country when we have our own restrictions to open sky policies. The two airports MOPA (Manohar International Airport) and Dabolim are expected to see an increase in footfalls and will see further investment in infrastructure.

Therefore, footfalls are here to increase. Today, the two airports connect Goa with close to 30 destinations domestically.” The state is also looking to increase room inventory to meet increasing demand, Khaunte said. “There were 3,000-odd hotels in 2022. In 2024, the number went up to 9,000 hotels, an increase of 6,000 hotels in different categories. We are looking atincreasing supply so that the demand will spread and customers will have more options, including homestays. Hotels across categories including four-stars and five-stars, showed occupancy of close to 100 percent last year.”
The tourism minister highlighted the state’s partnership with companies like MakeMyTrip, Agoda, Airbnb, Mastercard, among others in the last two years. “Airbnb, for example, went one step ahead and trained rural women in rural Goa with the support of the Department of Tourism,which has allowed them to skill themselves in terms of homestay promotions.”

The minister pointed out that tourism is one of the biggest contributors to the state’s GDP (gross domestic product), in terms of 16.43 percent and accounts roughly about 35 percent of the employment.

Khaunte noted that they are not discounting the issues raised by certain social media influencers. “We need to accept that there has been a little over tourism and infrastructure strain. We know that there is overcrowding in North Goa, leading to friction between locals and tourists. We know that there are issues on waste management. But every tourism destination has their own challenges,” he said.