PANAJI: Goa tourism is set to lose another traditional market next month. Finnair's move to discontinue its Goa operations from the next season comes after 25 years of flying to the state and will further diminish the number of Scandinavian tourists. It brought two flights a week during season.More than a year ago, Finnair has converted its charter operations into scheduled flights, but a charter operator would book 90 seats per flight to Goa.Chief operating officer at Sita Travel, Ernest Dias, who handled the larger segment of charters to Goa, on Monday said, "Finnare is not coming to Goa from the next season as the charter operator has decided to pull out. Goa is losing out because other destinations are offering better packages."This is the second setback to the Goan tourism market after 2014-15, when Germany's Condor, one of the first airlines to start charter operations to the state, discontinued operations citing high cost of operations.President of Travel and Tourism Association (TTAG) Savio Messias said they had been warning the government on this account repeatedly, but they were not taken seriously.The tourism trade body has taken a very critical view of the decline in charter business, especially from Scandinavian nations."It is unfortunate that Goa has lost another destination," Messias said. At a recent press briefing, the TTAG president had told reporters that agents from Japan Spain and the Dutch countries have pulled out over the years for health and safety reasons.Assistant vice-president and general manager at Holiday Village Resort and Spa, Guitry Velho said their 21-year relationship with charter operator Aurinko Matka is coming to an end. "It is sad," Velho said, adding that the charter operator pulling out would affect inflow of Scandinavian tourists to the state.Velho said, Goa tourism has regularly conducted road shows and trade fairs at these destinations.Goa tourism development corporation (GTDC) and tourism department have been under attack by the TTAG over its policy of choosing destinations for conducting road shows and participating in trade fairs without conducting any study of those markets.

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