Soon, Goa tourist hubs on your mobile phone

PANAJI, INDIA: If you are planning that trip to Goa, you can soon quit browsing through bulky travel guides. Now, all the information on the state's beaches, heritage sites and religious sites will be available on your mobile phones.

The Goa tourism department has partnered with Infotech Corporation of Goa Ltd (ITGL) for this mobile governance innovation.

"Locations which are of significance to tourists will be allocated with a specific unique code number. Texting the code number in the format MGoa_(code of place) to the number 56070, will give tourists information about that particular place," tourism director Swapnil Naik said Thursday.

According to Naik, this innovation will make the "tourist friendly" state all the more friendly for tourists.

"Places of tourist importance like forts, beaches, cultural hotspots, heritage sites, religious structures, waterfalls, adventure tourism sites and other places of interest will be included in the project," he said.

Naik said that signboards listing the codes for each place will be placed at strategic spots across the state and the tourism department would also increase awareness through the department's official website and publicity material, including brochures and other travel literature.

"Goa Tourism is constantly innovating and improving in keeping up with the expectations of our guests. Getting tech-savvy was the need of the hour. We believe this tourist-friendly project will be of immense help to the millions of travellers who visit our state year after year," Naik said.

Goa attracts over two million tourists annually, nearly a quarter of which are foreigners