Goa to face loss of £50 million if visa restriction for the UK is not relaxed: GFP

Panaji, Oct 11

Claiming that the coastal state will face a loss of £50 million if tourists from the United Kingdom don't visit, Goa Forward Party (GFP) President and MLA Vijai Sardesai have appealed to the BJP government to relax visa conditions.

Sardesai, though in opposition, said that he is ready to fight together for the cause and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resolve the issue.

"I want to appeal to Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to take up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lift the visa restrictions. We can come together and meet the PM over the issue," Sardesai said.

"Goa is facing cancellation of 7 to 8 bookings per day in small and medium hotels, due to new visa restriction by the Ministry of External Affairs, where British tourists have to seek a visa from nine centres (Visa Processing) in England," he said.

"This (lifting restriction) is important because in Goa annually a minimum of 40,000 to 50,000 tourists arrive from the UK. As per statistics of the pre-pandemic period, each tourist spends around Rs 98000, which means around Rs 500 crore turnover takes place from this area," Sardesai said.

According to Sardesai, the state exchequer gets 10 per GST from the total turnover, which amounts to £5 million crore. "Government will lose it if visa restrictions are not relaxed," he pointed out.

He said that earlier 35 to 40 per cent of tourists from Russia used to arrive in Goa. But now due to Russia and Ukraine wars, these tourists will not come to the coastal state. "Hence now we need to fill this space from England," he said.

Earlier in August, Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte had said that providing e-visa is also important for the state to get the same flow of people, which the government is looking forward to.

He had said that the government had decided to take up the issue of e-visa' to the United Kingdom with the Central government to help the tourism industry of the state.

Expressing concern about the low footfall of foreign tourists due to COVID and other issues, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) had also urged Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to convince the Central government to include the UK for the issuance of e-visas.

--IANS