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ICONS OF GOA TOURISM
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ICONS OF GOA TOURISM

Tourism, Uncategorized September 26, 2025 , by

By Rajan Narayan

ON the occasion of the World Tourism Day celebrations, I would like to pay homage to Goa’s tourism icons. Mining baron Audhut Timblo was the first Goan entrepreneur to start a starred hotel of international standards in Goa.
I was fortunate enough to be associated with it since its inception. I was working as general manager of an advertising agency – ImageAds — in the early 80s. Fomeñto, a Goan mining group, had its office in the same building as Mittal Towers at Nariman Point in Bombay.
Audhut approached ImageAds to handle the marketing of the public issue of Fomento Resorts. He had tied up with ITC to manage the hotel. Since Fomento was little known, we focused on the tie-up with ITC, which is a major player in the hospitality sector.
Those were the bad old days when there were no laptops. Moreover, Goa had yet to emerge as a major tourist destination. We travelled across the country with the merchant banker Cifco to get investors in Fomento.
Starting in Bombay, hopping across to Ahmedabad, and then onwards to Delhi, Calcutta (now Kolkata), Madras (now Chennai) and Bangalore (now Bengaluru). All within a week. My warmest memory is that of the ITC Chola in Madras.
I was dead tired, when I went to check-in. The young lady at the reception told me to proceed to the room. Within 10 minutes there was a bouquet of flowers and a get-well card. Within half-an-hour, a doctor arrived.
I took a party of media persons to Goa, where we were promoting Sesa Goa, besides Fomento’s Cidade de Goa. There was a typical Goan party with a lot of booze, song and dance. Guaranteed to win even the hardened hearts of the media.
I did not know then I would be coming back to Goa as the editor of OHeraldo and would stay on for 40 years plus, plus in Goa. Audhut would will claim the credit of bringing me to Goa. I had the satisfaction of seeing Cidade de Goa flourish and grow and it is now a Taj hotel.
VICTOR Albuquerque of Alcons took the lead in diversifying into the hospitality sector. Alcon was started by two junior engineers, who quit their jobs at Goa’s Public Works Department (PWD), to start “Al” for Albuquerque and “Con” for Counte.
They first took over Ronil, a small hotel in Baga, and then built what is today the present Hotel Grande Delmon in Panjim. The most ambitious project was the Dona Sylvia Resort – the 300-plus-room 5-star resort on the white sands of Cavellossim down south Goa.
When Alcon split, Delmon went to Victor’s wife Sylvia Albuquerque. It is still going strong. Son Varun Albuquerque now inherits and manages the hotel.
THEN there is the innovative genius, the late Norman D’Sousa who introduced the time-share concept to Goans. He persuaded Goans to invest in time-share holidays in the Sun Village. They then rented rooms or apartments back for use as a resort.
In the season, they catered to charters. In the off-season, Goans could holiday at the resort. Norman had a unique business model. He got all his requirements – fridges, AC, furniture, furnishing, etc – bartered for room nights.
Those whom the gods love, die young. The Sun Village group, spread over half-dozen properties, is now managed by his brother Ralph d’Sousa today.
Any World Tourism Day celebration would be incomplete without a paying a tribute to the late Vincent Ramos, son of a musician from Chorao village. He rose to be the first regional director of Taj Group of hotels in Goa. Vincent who was a friend of ours was a great public relations man as also a very warm, sensitive human being.
He introduced Rose Day at the Taj Exotica to create a bonding amongst hotel employees. Ladies went about selling roses to guys who in turn presented the flowers to their sweethearts. The girl, who got the largest number of roses, was declared the Rose Queen.
As F&B manager, Vincent looked after and attended to the needs of the late Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who spent a birthday week at the Taj Exotica. Alas, Ramos fell victim to cancer in the prime of his life and the peak of his career and the world of hospitality lost one of the best amongst the best in the tourism industry.

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