Soon, fine for illegal online tourism service providers

PANAJI

: To clamp down on

illegal

online service providers, who sell rooms without registering with the tourism department, the cabinet on Thursday cleared an amendment to the Registration of Tourist Trade Act to penalise offenders with a

fine

.


The act, which has been in force since 1985, requires all tourist activities such as hotels, tour operators, tourist guides, motor boat operators and adventure sports, to be regulated by way of registration and enforcement.

It has been noticed that online service providers sell rooms without registering with the department, which the Goa government perceives as illegal, an official said.

The amendment adds a new chapter, IV-B, which proposes that no person can provide online booking of accommodation or other tourist-related activity unless he is registered in accordance with the provisions of the act.

Any person offering rooms online will have to apply for a registration. The department will dispose the application within a period of one month from the date of receipt after which it will issue directions for the inclusion of the name and particulars of the person starting the business in its register. The person will be issued a certificate on payment of certain fees, renewable annually.

Recently, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) had complained about the large number of illegal operators offering rooms saying it was hurting them as they cannot afford to offer accommodation at prices being quoted by these operators.

The TTAG said the number of rooms the illegal operators made available was quite high and that it was not only affecting their business, but the government too, was losing out on revenue.