Goa Minister Pitches Spiritual Tourism in Varanasi

“Discover Goa Beyond the Beaches — Experience Its Spirituality, Culture and Heritage.”

That was Goa Tourism Minister Rohan A. Khaunte’s line to reporters in Varanasi on Friday, 21 August 2026. He said his state wants temples, churches, heritage, traditions and culture sold alongside the shoreline brand that already fills hotel rooms.

Khaunte framed the Varanasi stop as a chance to talk up Goa’s lesser-known offerings and to swap notes with a city built on spiritual travel. Officials quoted in the same city coverage said Varanasi’s spiritual tourism model offers insights for Goa. The slogan is the minister’s promotional language — not an audit of Goa’s pilgrim roads, church circuits or guide training.

Friday’s appearance sat in the same calendar window as the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India convention in the city. A 20 August preview listing had named Khaunte among expected FHRAI guests at Taj Ganges. That listing is related context. It does not prove that Friday’s on-record pitch came from the FHRAI inaugural stage.

Coastal states hunting for a second product line often look at temple towns when their beach season softens. Khaunte’s message fits that pattern: keep the beach poster, add churches, temples and cultural routes as equal products. How Goa would turn the pitch into packages, signage or trained guides was not spelled out in the Friday city copy.

Hospitality conferences make cross-state tourism talk easy. FHRAI’s Eternal Kashi-themed gathering was scheduled in Varanasi this week, so a Goa minister on the ground talking spiritual tourism is no surprise on the diary. Preview notes for the FHRAI window and Friday’s Khaunte remarks overlap in time. They are not automatically the same microphone in the same hall.

Varanasi’s spiritual visitor economy — temple corridors, aarti timings, pilgrim hotels — is exactly the kind of reference coastal tourism boards cite when they want a second season. Khaunte’s Friday remarks put that comparison on the record without announcing a new MoU, a joint circuit or a training calendar. The published city account stays with the pitch and the comparison, not with signed paperwork.

Firmly on the 21 August record: Khaunte was in Varanasi; he wanted temples, churches, heritage, traditions and culture promoted with beaches; he gave reporters the beyond-beaches slogan; and officials pointed to Varanasi’s spiritual model as a reference for Goa.

The expected-guest list does not confirm a named FHRAI speech. The lack of that stage note also does not erase his Friday remarks in the city. Until a post-event source pins him to a hall and a session, the news is a Goa tourism minister in Kashi, selling spirituality and culture next to sand, with Varanasi held up as a learning reference.