Visa ban set to severely hit charter tourist arrivals in Goa

    Panaji, Mar 12 (PTI) The coronavirus scare has
abruptly cut short the charter tourism season in Goa midway
with visas for international travellers getting suspended from
March 13 midnight onwards.
    India on Wednesday suspended all visas, except a few
categories such as diplomatic and employment, till April 15 in
a bid to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. The
suspension will come into effect from March 13 midnight.
    With this, the already struggling state tourism
industry is staring at huge losses as it depends on foreign
travellers to a large extent for revenue generation.
    Goa Airport Director Gagan Malik said the actual
situation on chartered flights, which bring tourists to the
state, will be clear only in the wee hours of March 14.
    Those who are flying before 5.30 am of March 14 will
be allowed to enter in the country. But considering the
current situation, it looks difficult that any charters will
come now, he said.
    Malik said the airport was expecting 60-70 more
chartered flights to arrive till end of the May, when tourist
season ends.
    Now, empty charters will arrive to take back the
tourists to their destinations in the days to come, he said.
    Travel and Tourism Association of Goa President Savio
Messiah said the chartered season will come to an early end
with the ban on visas.
    We want to approach the government seeking exemption
for Russian travellers from the visa ban. Russia is not
affected by the coronavirus, he said.
    But it looks unlikely that the Centre will listen to
the request as scare is widespread. We have to look at the
issue from broader perspective, he added.
    During the last tourist season, 250 chartered flights
had arrived from different countries, including Russia and the
UK. The collapse of travel firm Thomas Cook in the UK last
year had severely affected chartered flights to Goa. PTI RPS
RSY RSY

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)