Panaji:
Goa Tourism Industry has supported 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 in Panaji on Sunday.
Advertisements showing scantily clad women project wrong impression of the state, he said.
Goa Tourism Minister Fransisco Pacheco had announced that bikini-clad babes would vanish from advertisements promoting Goa tourism.
Pacheo had said that 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 added.
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.
Goa receives around 24 lakh tourists, of which four lakh are foreigners while majority are domestic travellers.