‘Garbage threatens to ruin Goa’s tourism party’
By IANSFriday, October 1, 2010
PANAJI - Stinking heaps of garbage are threatening to ruin Goa’s tourism party in the land of sun, sea and sand this year, an industry spokesperson said Friday.
“After the union government’s move to tighten the screws on multi-entry visas to India, garbage is one of the major threats to tourism in the state, which attracts nearly 2.5 million tourists to its shores annually, ” Ralph de Souza, spokesperson of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) said here.
Goa needs to have a garbage processing plant. Two years ago we lost a major tourism programme from Scandinavian countries, because they were not happy with the garbage situation in Goa,” he said.
He also said that the tourism department was undertaking a project involving mechanical cleaning of popular beach stretches in north and south Goa, but that would only help in partially solving the crisis.
He said the beggars had also badly affected the image of tourism. “Even before the tourists come here, thousands of beggars land up on the streets and beaches,” De Souza said.
