The 2023 National Games of India, also known as the 37th National Games of India, and informally as Goa 2023 were held from 19th October to 9th November 2023 in the state of Goa.
It was a massive and important event, formally inaugurated by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.
The games were held across the cities of Mapusa, Panjim, Ponda, Vasco and Margao, while the cycling and golf events were held in Delhi. In the 37th Edition, athletes competed in 43 Disciplines of Sports, which included international as well as ethnic games, such as Lagori.
Handling such an important event needed meticulous planning and perfect execution. The bidding was done in Goa, and we were very proud and excited when the Thomas Cook (India) Ltd. MICE team was awarded the tender. Our experience in handling such large scale events came in handy, and stood us in good stead, during the selection process. The organising team was confident about taking on this Herculean task, as TCIL has handled 5 such events in the past with various state governments.
The entire MICE Leadership on-ground team was there to guide, supervise and organise the project, including Rajeev Kale – President & Country Head Leisure Travel, MICE, Visa Travel, Meera Charnalia – Executive Vice President MICE, Paresh Malvankar – Vice President-MICE, Aman Mahajan-Associate Vice-President Domestic & MICE, and not forgetting the energetic Tour Management Leadership team of Cassius Colaco!
Our role in the National Games was specifically ACT (Accommodation, Catering and Transport). This involved detailing and logistical planning. When you consider that we are talking of taking care of over 13,000 Athletes and Sports Officials, involved in 43 Games, needing 200 Hotels and 50,000 room nights, across 18 venues, and providing over 1,50,000 meals, the mind boggles! Not to mention the 20,000 transfers by cars and buses!
As Cassius Colaco, Quality Control Manager-Africa & Middle East, told us….”We feel we were chosen to lead this journey of ‘impossible’ to ‘It is possible!’. Thanks to our 236 Tour Managers and 300 Volunteers, we nailed it.”
“We worked as one team, with one roar,” he said, “We will, we will rock you!”
Indeed, they did all did a great job! Superb coordination, planning and execution. We have proved once again, that our staff is capable of handling any task with confidence!
Once again, we are proud to say, “If there is one team in this country that can execute such events on-ground. It is team Thomas Cook!
When we go through the stunning statistics above, we realise that the real winners were our own team members, who tackled this humongous and daunting project with such skill and courage, making it such a huge success.