September 27, 2018 TnH Global 0

On World Tourism Day, Goa Tourism reaffirms its commitment to stay ahead in this tech-intensive industry

Technology has been in a constant state of evolution, positively impacting almost every industry today. The travel industry is no exception. From Big Data to Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality, the current trends in technological innovations in this sector are changing customer expectations and behavior. Goa Tourism has been contributing immensely to the digital transformation of the country’s travel sector. For instance, Goa Tourism through Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC) recently launched GOAMILES, an app based taxi service to streamline the entire tourist transportation process within the state. The initiative enables tourists and local Goans to book taxis at affordable, standardized rates and at their own convenience.

GTDC has also launched an e-commerce portal and a mobile application across Android and iOS platforms to provide tourists a digital experience of Goa. Through the web portal, international and domestic visitors can browse through various options ranging from holiday packages, hotel bookings to adventure trips, spice gardens and water parks, among others. Since its launch, Goa Tourism has received tremendous response from Goan travel entrepreneurs who have been able to market their products effectively on a single consolidated platform. The web portal has been further updated with a 12 hour call centre.

Goa Tourism recently launched an aggressive digital and social media campaign ‘Tourism by Tourists’ to promote Goa as a ‘must-visit’ destination. To achieve this, Goa Tourism partnered with over 500 amateur photographers (through crowd-sourced Instagram activity: #PickMyGoaPic), more than 100 bloggers, and 30 YouTube content creators to harness their content – be it videos, pictures and blogs – while touring Goa. The content that was shared by them was beautifully amalgamated into a fun and energetic video promoting Goa as a ‘must-visit’ destination. The campaign resulted in a manifold increase of their followers across social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The campaign also bagged a Gold at the National Tourism Awards by the Tourism Ministry of India for ‘Best use of Social Media in promotion of a Tourism Board’ in 2017. The digital campaign was also felicitated with other national and international awards in the communications sector.

The Department of Tourism, Govt. of Goa has also brought the entire tourism trade under e-registration which has streamlined the registration and license renewal processes. Local tourism stakeholders are able to monitor the progress of their applications online and receive updates through SMS. The GTDC residencies especially the Panjim Residency has been enhanced with new facilities for tech-savvy travelers. These include e-booking and e-payment facilities for tourists. Goa Tourism is also proposing GIS mapping and promoting tourism at national and international events through e-material apart from brochures.

Speaking on the occasion of World Tourism Day, The Hon’ble Minister for Tourism, Manohar Ajgaonkar said, “It gives me immense pleasure to say that Goa Tourism has undergone significant change by adopting digital technology and transforming its entire marketing and promotional activities. At a time when tourism boards are competing hard, Goa Tourism has gone ahead to increase its reach to the world and the results are visible. From digitalizing our internal processes to our tourism services, Goa Tourism has come a long way in this digital transformation. I wish our tourism partners, stakeholders and each and every visitor to Goa a pleasant experience with Goa Tourism. I also congratulate the Department of Tourism and Goa Tourism Development Corporation for their wholehearted co-operation, hard work and enthusiasm in achieving several milestones in this digital journey.”

The Hon’ble Minister for Power, Govt. of Goa & Chairman of Goa Tourism Development Corporation (GTDC), Nilesh Cabral said, “The Goa Tourism Development Corporation has been doing commendable work in the area of tourism and digital transformation and its new app based taxi service is a testimony of this. The Corporation, committed to improving experiences for tourists visiting Goa, worked round the clock to put in place an app based taxi service that will help visitors to first travel around in comfort and through a system that is also convenient and cheaper. GOAMILES is all set to take on the new tourism season and we are sure this new service will encourage tourists to visit Goa and explore the state as often as possible. Our other products and services which are being promoted through our digital platforms are also success stories of how digital technology is being put to use by Goa Tourism for promotion and marketing world over. I am happy that all these transformations are bringing in good results and more than seven million tourists visited Goa last year. As the new season begins I am confident that tourists will utilize all the facilities that are available for an all new experience and will be our ambassadors in their respective regions. I wish all our tourism stakeholders and officials on the occasion of World Tourism Day and appeal to everyone to keep the good work going and to keep the flag of Goa Tourism flying high always.”