Goa to woo European tourists from Syria

Goa will try to exploit the conflicts in Syria and Egypt to woo European tourists headed to the troubled region, Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar said Wednesday.

Parulekar, who has just returned after attending a travel and tourism mart in Moscow, also said that the state had set a target for 3.25 million tourists for the current tourism season beginning October.

"There is a lot of trouble in Syria and Egypt. We are trying to get the tourists who normally travel to these areas to Goa this year. We are trying to take advantage of the situation," Parulekar said.

The minister also said that in Moscow the delegation from Goa had talks with Turkish tourism and charter giant Coral, which handles a large volume of business in Turkey and facilitates tours to Syria and Egypt.

"We are looking at attracting tourists from Turkey, Egypt, Poland, Amsterdam (Holland) and Russia with the help of Coral," said Parulekar.

Over the last few years, Russians and British tourists have swamped Goa. The tourism department has been trying to make tourist arrivals diversified.

Parulekar said the tourism department had set a target of 3.25 million incoming tourists for the season which begins October and stretches to March next year.

"For the last seasons we had 1,025 charter flights, but this year the expectation is that we will have 1,400 charters for the coming season. Our goal is to reach 3.25 million tourists this year," Parulekar said.