The Goa chapter of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) was formally launched at a resort near Panaji recently with the objective of serving as a platform for advocating fair business policies, providing education and training to sector employees and promoters, to facilitate networking and collaboration, maintaining industry standards and supporting local businesses and cuisines.
A recent study has revealed that nearly 50 percent of the money spent by a tourist in Goa is incurred on food and beverages, which underlines the significance of restaurants, cafes, bars and clubs to the Goan economy.
“So for every rupee spent in Goa, 50 paise is directly spent on food and beverage, because that’s the main activity here. People either go to restaurants and bars or will go to nightclubs and there again they will eat or drink beverages,” according to Prahlad Sukhtankar, head of the NRAI’s newly launched Goa chapter, which was launched at the hands of Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte. He also said that nearly 45 percent of the state’s population is directly or indirectly employed by the restaurant industry in Goa. Rough estimates suggest that there are around 8,000 registered restaurants in the state.
