SIKKIM: Pact to pull tourists from Goa beach to Himalayas


BIJOY GURUNG


Tourists watch the Kanchenjungha from the Himalayan Zoological Park at Bulbulay, 7km from Gangtok. Picture by Prabin Khaling
Gangtok, April 19: Goa blessed with its sun-kissed beaches and Sikkim, endowed with towering peaks, are set for a rewarding marriage where both the premier tourist destinations will promote each other at their respective ends to ensure more visitors.

An agreement between the tourism development corporations of Goa and Sikkim to achieve the common goal of more tourist footfalls is slated to be inked by the end of this week.

“The idea is to have an agreement to promote tourists from Sikkim in Goa and vice versa. We want to tie up with tourism stakeholders here and come up with a sustained relationship where both Sikkim and Goa tourism will benefit,” Nikhil Desai, the managing director of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), told The Telegraph recently.

Desai was leading a GTDC team to Gangtok to showcase Goa’s tourism potential in the Himalayan state.

“Goa, though has seen a manifold rise in foreign and domestic tourists in recent years; wants to pull visitors from Sikkim and other northeastern states,” he said at a promotional event here.

The GTDC managing director said the proposal was to have Sikkim tourism offices to provide promotional items (brochures and leaflets) on Goa to tourists from within and outside the country. “We are very serious about this and we hope to ink a pact soon,” he added.

Sikkim Tourism Development Corporation (STDC) chief executive officer S. Anbalagan echoed Desai.

“We are positive on this agreement. Since Goa draws more foreign tourists than Sikkim, we plan to pull some of them to our state,” said Anbalagan. He added that Sikkim would benefit more in terms of foreign tourists, if the agreement clicked. “It will be like Sikkim tourism in Goa.”

Anbalagan said both the states would be signing agreements after all the formalities were completed.

If Sikkim is eyeing foreigners visiting Goa, the coastal state is interested in tapping the local people here and the domestic tourists visiting the Northeast.

“We expect people from here and the Northeast to visit Goa in large numbers in the next five years. There are many people from Goa visiting Sikkim and we are looking to have people here to visit Goa,” said Desai.

He added that Sikkim and the hilly district of Darjeeling are favourable destinations for Goans.

source; the telegraph