Is Goa’s tourism set to take flight on the wings of foreign tourists?

There’s much jubilation in Goa. This week, the coastal State’s tourist season kicked off on an optimistic note with the first two charters from Russia landing on Goan shores. As the steel birds swooped down at the Mopa airport’s tarmac, the merry chorus of “Foreigners are returning to Goa in big numbers after brief hiatus” floated through the tiny State.

It’s set off the buzzer on many questions. Are we going to see foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) into Goa swing back to the pre-pandemic figure of close to over nine lakh tourists per day? What does it mean for the tourism stakeholders? How dependent is Goa’s hospitality industry on earnings from foreign tourists today? Are foreign travellers still bigger spenders than domestic travellers in the tourism industry? So many more queries race through the mind. A tete-a-tete with the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) president Jack Sukhija offered some insight and perspective.

Two of his statements that stood out were “The number of foreign visitors is likely to double this year” and “Domestic tourists’ spending per day in certain segments has overtaken foreign tourists’ spending per day”. To be clear, spending per foreign tourist still continues to be higher than spending per domestic tourist. This is because foreign visitors usually stay for a longer duration.

A report brought out by the Central tourism ministry titled India Tourism Statistics 2023 shows that the average duration of stay by FTA.