A church body has slammed the recently announced Goa Tourism Policy 2020 calling it a ‘mirage’. The church body is of the view that the policy is going to benefit neither the state or its people.
Fr. Freddy Braganca, Executive Director of the Centre for Responsible Tourism which functions under the aegis of the Goa Church wrote to the state’s Tourism Ministry citing that the policy did away with serious issues like environment degradation, sex tourism, easy availability of drugs, trafficking in women and children.
“The vision needs to envisage a just and equitable tourism with ‘people’ as the focus,” Fr. Braganca said in his letter to the Ministry, which also demands putting the policy on hold and restarting a consultation process with industry stakeholders.
“In the absence of a comprehensive development programme for people, very serious issues of environmental degradation, violation of Coastal Zone Regulations, cultural decay, sex tourism, easy availability of narcotics, child labour, child and women trafficking, alienation of communities from their lands have not been addressed,” the letter read as reported by a media agency.
The Goa Tourism Policy has been claimed to peovide a unique Goan experience to the tourists. It aims to shift the focus from the beaches to eco-tourism in the state
2020-11-30