log on to thegoan.net FRIDAY JANUARY 26, 2024 Ponda farmer gets Padma Shri THE GOAN I NETWORK PANAJI Sanjay Anant Patil (58) from Ponda will be conferred with the prestigious Padma Shri award for 2024, in recognition of his work in agriculture. According to reports, Patil is an innovative farmer and a green revolutionary, who has been hailed as a ‘oneman-army’ for transforming a ten-acre barren land into a flourishing green farm with help from ICAR-CCARI, Goa. Patil’s contributions to natural farming and zero-energy micro-irrigation have been widely acclaimed. For 2024, the President has approved the conferment of 132 Padma Awards including 2 duo cases (in a duo case, the Award is counted as one). The list comprises 5 Padma Vibhushan, 17 Padma Bhushan and 110 Padma Shri Awards. Thirty of the awardees are women and the list also includes eight persons from the category of Foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 9 posthumous awardees. WE ARE CLOSED TODAY The offices of THE GOAN will remain closed on January 26, 2024, on account of the Republic Day holiday, hence there will be no edition of this newspaper dated January 27, 2024. WEATHER >> Max: 31 C Min: 19 C Humidity: 84% TIDES Low: High: 05:40 10:45 17:18 --------- @thegoanonline Facebook.com/thegoan The Goan E-Paper (Playstore/IOS) 17 pages PRICE ` 10 PANAJI MARGAO GOA VOLUME IX, NO.219 RNI: GOAENG/2015/65729 Goa has tough job at hand to tackle negative publicity STATE’S IMAGE AS TOURIST HOTSPOT MARRED DUE TO DISTURBING INCIDENTS OF LATE VIBHA VERMA PANAJI In the face of the Goa government’s initiative to engage social media influencers for promotional efforts, the State grapples with a concerning trend. While attracting a large number of quality tourists has remained a distant dream, Goa continues to be marred by disturbing incidents with at least three such cases reported in this month itself. A highly educated mother, an AI start-up founder from Bangalore Suchana Seth chose the destination to allegedly murder her four-year-old child. Another case involved a hotel manager’s wife from Uttar Pradesh, who, within three days of joining her husband Gaurav Katiyar in Goa, was ‘smothered to death in the sandy waters’ of Cabo De Rama beach. The stakeholders conceded that as a tourist destination, such incidents attract attention, which negatively impacts marketing. “Such incidents are detrimental, but how do we avoid them? Being a tourist hotspot, such coverage is inevitable,” President of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa Nilesh Shah said. TTAG Vice President Jack Sukhija and Past President Savio Messias echoed a simi- WHAT STAKEHOLDERS SAY… „„President of TTAG Nilesh Shah feels bad publicity incidents are detrimental, but it is difficult avoid them… being a tourist hotspot, such coverage is inevitable „„TTAG Vice President Jack Sukhija denies that such incidents affect tourism stating that crimes can be committed anywhere „„Former TTAG President Savio Messias says Goa, like many other tourism hubs, becomes an attractive destination for those with criminal intentions who perceive it as an easy escape lar sentiment, with the latter adding that Goa – like many other tourism hubs -- becomes an attractive destination for those with criminal intentions who perceive it as an easy escape. “If a person (who intends to commit a crime) selects a less frequented place, he/she will soon be under the radar of the residents there… tourist destinations get plenty of people and therefore, it is used as a bait to commit a crime,” Messias said, adding that popular destinations across the world are affected by this phenomenon. Sukhija denied that such incidents affect tourism citing "crimes can be committed anywhere." As Goa struggles to lure quality tourists unlike many of its competitors, alleged drugs and unruly visitors have also kept the trend of ‘sab kuch chalta hai’ attitude going. While reckless and drunken driving often has the involvement of tourists, the death of a Rajasthan-based event management owner during an alleged rave party is the latest example. Drunk tourists also made headlines on the first two days of Sunburn EDM festival in December 2023. Despite lack of a definitive solution, the stakeholders proposed a robust marketing strategy to counter the negativity. Stressing well-behaved tourists for sustaining tourism, Shah maintained that “little more efforts are needed” to strengthen marketing. Messias, on the other hand, stated that while such incidents may not pose a direct threat, they require proactive >Continued on PG9