Goa to use social networking sites to woo tourists

Goa is looking at social networking websites to salvage its sagging international tourist inflow which has taken a severe beating since last couple of years. Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), the State government run agency, will now bank on Twitter and Facebook for its image building initiative, officials said.

"This will help us to reach to new clients and also keep in touch with existing guests, who have Goa on their annual holiday calender," GTDC’s spokesman Deepak Narvekar, said. Narvekar added that GTDC would be the first state-run corporation to have its presence on Twitter, a social networking website, which is a buzzword in the cyberspace.

The state, known for its sandy beaches, has been facing a challenge to maintain its foreign tourist inflow after it earned bad repute due to sporadic crimes against the foreigners.

The conservative estimates reveal that the inflow of tourists from UK plummeted all time high last couple of years. The Russian visitors saved the industry from being doomed as their numbers touched 40,000 mark, an industry expert said.

Narvekar said that the social networking websites will compliment the State Tourism Department’s initiative to promote the state as a safe destination. GTDC, having a chain of 13 resorts of its own in the state, has decided to disseminate all the possible positive information about the state through these websites.

"We are trying to project the real, positive, image of the state," Narvekar said. Goa attracts around 24 lakh tourists, of which around three-odd lakh are foreigners who arrive here to soak in the sun.