Goa is well integrated into the global tourism circuit, attracting visitors from across the world. The number of international passengers handled at the Dabolim Airport in 2016-17 was 8,04,760, which increased to 8,35,264 in 2017-18 and thereafter witnessed a declining trend and reached the lowest to 39,866 in 2020-21 (Pandemic year).
The post-pandemic period has shown signs of revival with an increasing trend and the number of international passengers handled during 2024-25 being 5,81,606 (Dabolim + Mopa) and the figure recorded for 2025-26 (till January 2026) is 4,65,393. Thus, it is evident that in spite of two international airports in operation, Goa is far behind its 2017-18 level in terms of handling international passengers. The meaning of international tourists includes foreign tourists possessing another country passport and Non-Resident Indians.
One apparent reason for this decline may be attributable to a decline in chartered flights to Goa. The number of chartered flights to Goa peaked in the year 2017 to 1,024 and then showed a declining trend continuously to 799 (2019), 356 (2023), 266 (2024) and 189 (2025). The number of charter tourists to Goa has declined from 2,49,374 in 2017 to 40,336 in 2025. Though, tourists’ arrival on water route is meagre, the number of arrivals through cruise vessels has declined from 52,398 (28 vessels) in 2019 to zero arrivals in 2021 (pandemic) registering a slow recovery post pandemic to 15,590 arrivals (17 vessels) in 2024.
The international passengers handled at an airport include both arrivals and departures. Therefore, in terms of the headcount, the actual number of international tourists would be half of the number of passengers travelled, assuming that all the international passengers who arrive at the Goa airports depart from Goa airports itself.
In addition, there is a possibility that the international passengers arrive from another country at the airports outside Goa, undergo immigration and customs check at the respective airports of arrival to India and then travel to Goa like domestic passengers. Therefore, international tourists’ arrivals to Goa could be under-reported to some extent. Though the tourism department collects information from various hotels and other accommodation avenues in Goa, the international Goan diaspora coming to their homes does not get counted in such cases.
It is also seen that nationally from 2019 to 2024, though the number of International Tourists Arrivals (ITAs) to India has increased, the number of Foreign Tourists Arrivals (FTAs) has declined. While the total ITAs to India has increased from 1,79,13,514 in 2019 to 2,05,68,622 in 2024 registering a growth rate of 14.82%, FTAs has declined from 1,09,30,355 in 2019 to 95,20,924 in 2023 registering a marginal recovery in 2024 (99,51,722).
Arrivals of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) in India has reached 10.62 million in 2024, reflecting a 13.22% increase over 2023 and a substantial 52.15% rise compared to the pre-pandemic level of 2019. This strong rebound highlights the growing confidence of the Indian diaspora in travelling to India post pandemic.
The Government of Goa actively participates in major international tourism marts, fairs and road shows like ITB Berlin (Germany), ITB Asia (Singapore), WTM (London) and many other events to promote ‘Brand Goa’ globally. The intent would be to attract tourists, build partnerships and reposition Goa beyond beaches. With two international airports in operation, the state has surplus capacity to handle about 50 million passengers annually while the capacity utilisation at present is only about 25%.
The state has drastically improved its road infrastructure, especially the national highways and connectivity to various tourism destinations across the state. While the Mormugao Port Authority is utilising its existing infrastructure to handle cruise liners, it is actively processing setting up of a dedicated cruise terminal designed to handle both international and domestic cruise liners.
The upcoming inauguration of four-lane Goa-Mumbai highway is likely to reduce the travel time from 12 hours to around 6 to 7 hours. Thus, the state has good connectivity in all three modes of transport viz air, road and water. Though, domestic tourists’ arrival has been showing a reasonably good growth, international tourists’ arrival is yet to pick up.
Presently, global geopolitical disruptions like Russia-Ukraine, Middle East conflicts have disrupted international airline routes impacting international tourists’ arrivals.
Further, it is necessary to understand that tourism is not a monopoly and Goa has to compete with better managed destinations. There is competition globally from Southeast Asian countries like Thailand, Bali, Vietnam etc and also domestically from places like Kerala, Andaman etc.
It cannot be denied that the state has issues like unregulated and expensive taxi ecosystem, relatively expensive hotel accommodation, inconsistent service quality, overcrowding in certain tourism spots, declining environmental attraction, garbage management issues, general perception issues in terms of safety, hospitality etc.
Social media has become a strong medium for generating perception in terms of negativity bias, amplification of stray incidences and narrative-building. It is true that bad news content may be many a time unverified and may travel fast, impacting tourism decisions of travellers. The authorities need to be proactive in dealing with such matters in terms of building credible grievance redressal mechanism, digital countering of misinformation, rapid response mechanism for on-ground incidences, encouraging positive story telling by the tourists on social media platforms etc.
As per the Tourism Satellite Account for Goa prepared by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), tourism sector contributes significantly to the Goan economy, generating an employment share of over 40%, both direct and indirect employment. While Goa has the required infrastructure facilities, it has to become competitive and fix last-mile issues at the earliest to fast-track revival of global connectivity and improve international tourists’ headcount. If not addressed early, Goa may face slowdown even in domestic tourists’ arrival in the near future.
(Dr Suresh Shanbhogue is a senior retired bureaucrat.)
