Tourists from the USA would love to visit Goa, but are deterred by the long, almost two-month wait for visa by the Indian government, said tourism minister Dilip Parulekar on Monday. Parulekar said that he will therefore renew his efforts to convince the central government to expedite issue of visas to Americans who wish to visit India. 

Parulekar, who visited USA along with deputy chief minister Francis D'Souza, tourism director and others to promote Goa tourism in the USA, returned home on Monday. The Goan delegation met US tourism trade persons and held presentations in New York and Los Angeles. 

Parulekar said the officials in the American tourism and travel trade told his delegation that people in the USA know about Goa and would love to visit the state. "But they complained that if they apply for visas, the Indian government takes two months to issue them. By then, the potential tourists change their mind. They are not interested in visa on arrival," Parulekar said. 

The tourism minister said he had highlighted this issue to the former Union tourism minister K Chiranjeevi at least thrice before and will continue to pursue the issue. Parulekar agreed that the Centre has strong concerns about security issues, following the ease with which terrorist David Headley visited India and facilitated the terrorist attack. "But the Americans said that African and south-east Asian countries issue them visas within 24 hours. They said India can take eight days, but two months is too long. The Americans are big spenders and Goa would definitely benefit from these tourists," Parulekar said. 

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