Tourism industry backs Goa govt`s decision to censor `bikini babes`

Panaji: The Goa Tourism industry has backed the government`s decision to censor all advertisements showing `bikini babes` as part of its fight against the growing image of the state as a sex-tourism destination."Tourism will not be affected if bikini clad women disappear from the posters. In fact, it may help to get good tourists," Travel and Tours Association of Goa (TTAG) president Ralf De Souza told reporters here yesterday.

Advertisements showing scantily clad women project wrong impression of the state, he said. Talking to reporters last week, Goa Tourism Minister Fransisco Pacheco had announced that "bikini-clad babes" would vanish from advertisements promoting Goa tourism. Pacheo had said such advertisements were portraying the beach destination wrongly. The move had received the backing of Chief Minister Digamber Kamat, who said, "We should go for clean tourism. Government will try its level best to ensure that Goa is spared from the scar of bad tourism." Locals and tourism industry players should join hands with the government in projecting Goa as a family holiday destination, he had said. The issue is also being discussed by Goa`s lawmakers after the bad publicity received by the state following a series of rape and drug abuse cases. PTI