Ekaterina Belyakova Head of Russian Information Center came up with a clarification on removal of India or Goa from the list of safe destinations. She said that the officials ‘did not discuss Goa or India in the safe destination list’
The press release that came out after Indian media has highlighted ‘dropping of India from the list of safe destinations for Russian tourists’. The Russian government has already dropped Egypt and Turkey, following the recent attacks made by Islamic State (IS) on passenger flights and fighter jets, flying over Syria.
Russian Information Center’s head Ekaterina Belyakova clarifying on the report said “In our previous statement, we have noted that Russian authorities did not discuss including Goa or India in the list of ‘safe’ destinations recommended by Russian government to Russian tourists. We say (sic) that Russian government only discussed the list of countries recommended for visits (holidays).”
She further added that her statements over Russian charter tourist had been misrepresented, regarding Russian travelers arriving in Goa “Our statement did not have any information regarding removal of India from the list of ‘safe countries’ or its addition among the list of ‘unsafe countries’ as it was mentioned in media reports published earlier.” Adding to this she said “Unfortunately, both India and Goa, is not discussed as a promising direction for Russian travelers.”
In the statement that Ekaterina had made earlier, she said According to the news agency INTERFAX, November 26, 2015, first deputy speaker of the Parliament of the Russian Federation, Ivan Melnikov, offered to convene a ’roundtable’ to make proposals to improve the availability of new, safe tourist destinations for Russians – such as Cuba, south Vietnam and southern China”.
“The main focus of our statement was to show the prospects for Goa that will open if Goa becomes an alternative destination instead if Egypt and Turkey,” further briefed Ekaterina Belyakova.
There had been couple of unfortunate incidents happening with Russian tourist in past couple of years, which includes un-standard behaviors on Indian flights and rude taxi drivers along with unusual pricing has made ways of Russian travelers un-comfortable, hereby affecting likeliness of Goa as a holiday destination of choice.
A media report reveals that after Russia’s banning of Turkey and Egypt, it is a great opportunity for India to capitalize. Since, there are around 7 million tourists who can be attracted towards Goa and India as a whole.
