PANAJI: The implementation of the new tourism master plan, which was approved by the state cabinet last month, will begin from the next tourism season, officials have said. The first step of the 25-year vision document is to constitute a tourism board as proposed in the policy.
“We want to at least start executing the plan by the beginning of the next tourism season, but first, we’ll have to get the board in place,” a top tourism official said. The board, which will be headed by the tourism minister, will have representatives from stakeholders as well as government appointees linked to the industry.
The plan has six stages, of which the drafting and approval of the policy was stage four. The fifth stage, officials said, would involve developing an institutional framework, including the formulation of legislations, to aid the pursuance of the plan’s objectives.
The sixth phase is an action plan for execution.
“As master planner will guide us on how to go about executing it,” he said.
Once the tourism board is constituted, the current mechanisms — the high-powered committee headed by the chief minister that decides tourism infrastructure projects, and the state-level permission committee tasked to examine and approve proposals for events — will be dissolved.
“All tasks handled by the two committees will be carried out through the tourism board,” the official said. “Our aim is to execute plans suggested in the masterplan. Presently, we take up projects or tasks that we deem fit. In the absence of any focussed plan, we are not sure if the desired results are achieved when we approve any marketing proposal.”
An official said that focussed marketing is very important, since the state has limited funds for promotion and marketing of tourism activities, unlike Kerala or Sri Lanka. Goa tourism has earmarked around Rs 50 crore for promotional and marketing activities.