Goa tourist season to begin as per schedule on Oct 2

Panaji, Sep 30: The Goa tourist season will begin as per schedule on October 2 with the arrival of a fight from Russia by a private travel firm.

The first chartered flight which was scheduled to arrive from Dubai to Goa stands cancelled. "Concord Exotic Voyages (P) Ltd will bring its first chartered flight of Russian tourists to Goa on October 2 at 8.30 am," Sheikh Ismail, General Manager of the company said today.

The flight with 500 passengers on board will arrive in Goa heralding the tourist season, he said. "It is also for the first time in more than 10 years that a chartered flight with tourists will come as early as first week of October," Ismail said.

The tourism department will be welcoming the tourists in the traditional manner, he said. The arrival of the flight will enable Goa keep its date of October 2 to start with the tourist season, as earlier the industry had feared the postponement of the season to October 15.

"The Fly Dubai flight which was supposed to carry passengers, who arrived from Russia to Dubai, stands cancelled.It was supposed to arrive on October 2," Savio Messias, president of Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, said today.

He said arrival of Concord flight will begin the tourism season which looks bright. According to Airport Authority of India, various chartered flights have booked 900 slots at the Dabolim airport till March 31 next year.

"Till March 31, 2017, a total of 900 chartered flights are booked at our airport. The number will cross 1,000 mark for the current season as the charters continue to arrive till June," Airport Director B C H Negi said.

In the last tourist season, 842 chartered flights had arrived bringing in tourists specially from Russia and UK.

PTI