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Tourism minister Rohan Khaunte on Tuesday vowed to crack down on unregistered hotels, guesthouses, and homestays. Khaunte said that the tourism department had simplified the registration process and reduced the number of compliances to encourage hotels and guesthouses to register with the department.
Khaunte found himself on the backfoot after Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai revealed Goa Tourism Development Corporation’s data on unregistered hotel units.
Sardesai said that Goa has a significantly high number of unregistered resorts and hotels while 98% of the villas offered to tourists are unregistered and 100% of the homestays are unregistered.
Sardesai said that 12,000 tourism units are operating in the state without any registration.
Khaunte admitted in the state legislative assembly that he was unaware of the data but assured the House that he would take the figures from Sardesai and pursue the defaulting units.
“I will take strict action against these hotels. I will take the data from Vijai. I was searching for this data,” Khaunte said. “We have reduced so many compliances and permissions under ease of doing business. We are now giving simplified renewals.”
Khaunte added, “We saw that new registrations increased to 6,269 in Category C and D hotels as of 2023. We have seen that revenue has increased too.”
Earlier during the discussion on the grants for the tourism sector, Sardesai had blamed non-Goan businessmen for operating unregistered hotels, villas, and homestays. “How can a 3-star hotel continue unregistered? These homestays and villas are owned by outsiders and they are doing roaring business,” said the GFP MLA. “Multiple units are registered under the same number.”
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