[IMG=21069-6906]On September 26th BANKO correspondents discovered that breaking the tradition of mass-market destinations the increase of air traffic volume to the popular Indian resort Goa is not expected in the coming season. The situation will remain the same as in season 2005-2006: two charter programs will be operated from Moscow to Goa. One of them suggests Transaero flights by two Boeings – 767 on weekly basis and once in ten days. The flights will be launched on October 25th. The second charter program includes weekly VIM-avia flights by Boeing – 757 starting from October 28th (the first flight on October 18th is for ten-day tours).
Meanwhile, travel market experts explain lack of ambitious plans by the shortage of accommodation in Goa. This problem became urgent after the booming demand for Goa. Tatiana Melnichenko, Tourism Director of Deo, explained that ‘the destination can not cope with high tourist flow owing shortage of hotels. Therefore, we made a decision to increase air traffic volume to the destination’. ‘The existing hotel base does not allow further increase of a number of flights’, confirmed Anna Podgornaya, Sales Director of Pegas Touristik.
Nevertheless, tour operators do not forecast stagnation on the destination. According to the increase in sales depth became a new tendency: ‘first booking for the New Year period were made in May. Besides, a number of tours booked in September doubled comparing to the same period of last year’, set an example Victoria Kizimova, Tourism Director of UTE Megapolus group. She pointed out that tourists are ready to travel to Goa starting from the beginning of October, therefore, in future flights to Goa might be launched earlier.
It is interesting that travel market experts do not consider the Indian state Kerala located to the South from Goa to be an alternative destination. They doubt the success of a charter program to the destination. Viktoria Kizimova commented that ‘Kerala is a medical resort. There are a few hotels on the coast. Charter handling at the local airport is very expensive. Moreover, there are scheduled flights by Qatar Airways to the resort and their cost is comparable to the charter cost’.
