Porvorim (Goa) Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar has told the ongoing State Assembly session that village walks and home stays would be promoted under the new tourism master plan.

Ajgaonkar in a written reply tabled on the floor of the House has given details about the tourism department’s plans for the future. A private consultancy firm has been already engaged to prepare the tourism master plan for the state.

“The Master Plan proposes two tourism village stays programs under the “culture and Heritage Programs”. The elements undertaken for promoting village stays- identification of village “cluster based on authentic features, with emphasis on maintenance of Goan tradition and culture”,” Ajgaonkar has said in a written reply tabled on the floor of the House today.

He was replying to a question tabled by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar and Congress legislator Clafacio Dias.

“The aim of master plan is to seek innovative means of financing, that is private participation, CSR initiative of companies, crowd funding, hotel chains and multinational organisations developing model tourist experience villages and others,” he said.

The minister said “tourism programmes which features village walks/home stays are proposed to be marketed and promoted through the website, mobile applications, key physical point programs, press, publicity and programmatic marketing, customer intelligence/campaigns and integration into a smart tourism destination.”
Team TNV