Christmas Eve is here and New Year is round the corner. We are in a situation where our pristine Goa, which used to be a magnet for the world to come, is suffering greatly and fast becoming just another destination where certain kinds of tourists come in, spend the money and go back.
The preposition that we have today is whether we are killing the Golden Goose as it were of tourism. The overwhelming feedback that we’ve been getting from people, including many stakeholders, is that we are indeed in the process of killing this proverbial Golden Goose, if we have not killed it already. Some people obviously see hope and some space for resurrection. We use this word specifically during this period and what we are asking is can we resurrect Goa from the abyss that it has sunk into, as far as tourism is concerned.
We have a lot to unpack and sink our teeth into a lot of the issues that have been mentioned. But what is important here is to flag a couple of issues - one is tourism in Goa, the way that it should have been heading, secondly, what has changed. Is it time to completely go back to the drawing board and relook at the way we need to handle our tourism, because at the end of the day Goa was not just a tourist destination tourism itself was the big ambassador? It used to make the brand Goa and it used to be the reason why Goa flourished in a manner that we did.
If we don’t get this right now, then the whole Goa story might end forever and that isn’t very good. However, let us also begin and end with a note of hope that if the right people get on to the right jobs and do it honestly, then maybe there’s still hope because it doesn’t take too many complications to fix it, just the right mind, the right spirit and a little bit of honesty in doing it.
When asked why airfares to Goa are so low and why hotel rooms are still empty, Saurabh Khanna, General Manager, The Park Hotels, said, “As everyone’s aware that post-Covid, Goa was the only destination and for three years, people could not travel internationally as much as they would have liked to. Now things have opened up and with a lot of free Visas being offered to Indian travellers, so obviously it’s easier to travel out.”
“A lot of people who’ve been traveling to Goa frequently for the last three years have sort of probably have had a boredom setting in. They are looking at options of going abroad. Also with two airports, the number of flights coming in have increased. Though the good thing is that most of the flights coming in are still packed and the reasonable rates are sort of a blessing for us hoteliers. So, I think closer to the date, the rates will rationalise,” Khanna said.
Regarding hotel bookings, he said that earlier people would plan and book much in advance. But now the time frame has come down to sometimes two to three days before Christmas and New Year.
“It it is a worrying sign. But then this is something that we have seen earlier also and I’m personally worried too much. Christmas is already near and New Year's Eve is next weekend. We are almost full. We still have rooms available, but I’m sure that’ll also be filled up soon,” the hotelier said.
Another issue that needs to be flagged here is the issues of shacks and tourism on the beach. The spirit of tourism was kind of intrinsically linked to shacks, where people would spend a lot of time there. Now we see that one of the biggest attractions that we all had as children and young adults, which was hanging out in shacks, seems to be completely gone. Why has this downside happened?
Dixon Vaz, hotelier and Cavellosim Sarpanch, said, “Back in the ‘90s, the shacks were different. It used to be a real Goan shed, where people could have a close relation with the people involved in managing them. The procedure was very convenient. One could just apply, pay some fees and start your business. But today, for starting a shack business, one has to go through so much administrative paperwork. There are multiple rules and regulations. As a result, the shacks are becoming more like a commercial entity, rather than serving people.”
“Hospitality is a way of life for Goans. But now there’s no feel of Goa in the Shacks. The fees are so much for the shacks guys there are so many rules and regulations. So they need to recover the cost and hence they increase the prices. Shacks are competing with each other. So, they need to make up for all these things and in the process, they have lost that Goan touch,” Vaz said.
“The priority now is how they can earn money. For example, Rs 3.5 lakh is required to be paid as fees before you start. It’s a lot of money right. So, the question is how to recover that money? So they have become commercial so that they can recover their money first,” he said.
Now of course we have Christmas and the New Year is also approaching. Earlier it almost seemed as if this was the best period for Goan markets, in the sense that everybody knew that all people from all over the world would come here during this period. Now, the issue here is have we kind of failed to use this period at least in ensuring that we have right and enough footfalls?
Lyndon Alves, a senior tourism professional, said, “I think like any destination, Goa too lives by a brand. The brand is something that brings in tourism without effort, brings in the right tourism. We have changed that brand and it’s not the same brand as before, which was aspirational. Suppose, earlier I booked a room in Goa for New Year, everybody would want to come there because I was going there. But now that flavour has been lost. People are not talking of Goa anymore.”
“It’s a lot to do with indecisiveness, because with all this madness in the press about one music festival that’s controlling the whole publicity of Goa on a daily basis, which is ridiculous. First of all, there are people who want to come here because of the music festival and there are people who don’t want to come here because of the music festival. When it's indecisiveness, you lose both,” Alves said.
“I mean, till two days ago you had a festival on the 31st and now you say it’s cancelled. It’s ridiculous because you can’t cancel someone’s 31st planned night out, just a week before. They bought air tickets. It’s all created a mess for people. I think it was completely wrong in the first place to apply for having the event on 31st,” he said.
“They should never have applied for it and I can’t understand why the government for 15 years in a row, can’t get the act together with a permission. They can’t get the act together with the taxi problem, they can’t get the act together with a Sunburn permission. You are delaying the shack licenses. Every year it’s shortening their time to earn money. So it’s no more happy vibes, enjoying guests coming. You’re serving them sorry you’re serving them. Instead of six months, I got three months. What do I earn in that? This is destroying the whole charm,” Alves said.
“We don’t have a plan. I came here in 1992, when there were seven flights a week from Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Today we only have international Russian tours. We put a big article in the newspapers in the morning that a flight had landed from Kazakhstan. Come on, there’s so much more of the world where we’ve lost complete touch with and that all added international flavour to Goa,” he said.
“I think honestly, we’ve lost the value of that festive week monopoly we had for good quality tourism in Goa. This is because we never looked after the Golden Goose. We cut it. For example, Sunburn was a wonderful festival when it started off. But like any other festival, it has grown. Goa doesn’t have the infrastructure to keep something like this going. So, either get the venue or the date changed. But don’t allow something single-handedly, which the whole State apparently doesn’t want,” Alves added.
“People are already avoiding Goa because of situations like pickpocketing, robbing, taxi problem…you’re forced to take a rental cab. There’s no place on the roads to drive. You’re having accidents. You can’t take a taxi and go out for dinner because they’re not available or the rates are exorbitant. So, you either rent a car or drive your own car. Air fares have gone down. Initially, the air fares were Rs 30,000. They were on par with other international destinations. They have now hit us straight away with no visa fee and other services. We lost that hold. Now we’ve come to the ‘just take whatever you can’ situation,” he said.
Maria Victor, founder of Make it Happen, a community-led experiential travel company, speaking about what’s clicking with tourists vis-à-vis her company, she said, “We are in the space of experiential tourism. We had a very different take on tourism. Tourism is a platform to showcase local talent. That’s the space that we saw, the difference that tourism could make. So in that sense, what we offer is authentic local experiences, trails or in heritage walks that are led by passionate local storytellers. So that’s what travellers are seeking for.”
“Today, the so-called luxuries of a fancy house or a villa is one part, but more than that, when they’re traveling to a destination, they’re looking for authentic local experiences. They can try the food maybe in the natural settings in a home. You get to experience traditional occupations, you get to hear stories of the places. But when you do a heritage walk, you get to really connect intimately with that place. That’s what travellers are looking for,” she said.
Touching upon the issue of noise pollution caused by loud music parties, Darshan Bhatia, crusader against noise pollution, said, “Talking about noise pollution, imagine if somebody was putting his sewage into your compound or their diesel fumes into your house, you would want to put a stop to it. But if it happens daily and it’s not stopped and you can’t live or sleep because of it, you will take some action to stop that. This is the same with noise.
“Look, I also enjoy music concerts. All I’m saying is do it. But live in harmony with your neighbours. There are old people living, and students have to go to school the next day. You cannot have booming EDM music going till 4 am, otherwise I will have to fight against it,” he said.
“Coming to milking the Golden Goose, you know in Hindi there’s a word called Matrabhumi, meaning ‘motherland’. If you keep exploiting it and don’t treat it with the respect it needs, it’s going to come back and hit you really badly. In the early ‘90s, Goa had a very unique culture different from the rest of India. It had something very special probably because it had Portuguese influence. The people of Goa were and continue to be lovely. There was music, there was dance. I would get down from the airport and as soon as I drove in the taxi, there would be a smile on my face,” he said.
“Today if I tell any of my friends if they would like to come to Goa for a holiday they will be hesitant citing traffic issues, garbage littered everywhere…a host of negative points will crop up. The problem starts from the airport itself when one looks to hire a taxi,” B hatia said.
“It’s not rocket science to know that tourism needs a few basic things. You need good transport, infrastructure, good restaurants, good food and good people, like Maria is showing. You have this feeling that I’m being ripped off and let’s just assume you are living or staying in Kandul and you want to go for dinner, you will probably spend Rs 3,000 for a taxi. Whereas anywhere else in India, an Uber ride for the same distance would cost Rs 200-250. From that point of view, there’s a feeling that the mafia is taking advantage of me,” the activist said.
“Now coming to what are solutions, I have a friend who has a beautiful hotel on the beach during Covid. I would go and sit in the evenings there. The beach was virgin. So it is not that things have been destroyed. It can be actually reversed. We still have time. Luckily for whatever reason, we haven't had crazy construction along the beach. There is a point of reversibility,” he said.
“If you really look at it, all tourism activities happen within 1 Km of the coast. The moment you go in, it is still virgin. There’s so much potential along the river banks. If you just thought of a little boat cruise, with nice cafes and boutique stores, it could be a great experience. There’s a lot that can be done nicely. If you go to the hinterlands, the hilly forests offer a lot of opportunities. But it needs a plan and proper execution of those plans,” Bhatia said.
Reminiscing the ‘90s era, Lyndon Vaz said, “We were looking at promoting Goa’s tourism at the grassroots level internationally. We created an interest for people to come to Goa. But then, we took it for granted and later on killed it. We need to go back to the drawing board and find out ways to revive the quality of tourism in Goa.”
“In its millennium issue, the India Today magazine on its cover put the image of Goa as a party destination. We tried to project Goa as a party hub and contradicted it. Then we showed Goa as and of beaches but contradicted it. Now we are speaking about hinterland tourism, but nothing has been done by the Goa government or Goa Tourism to promote it. What has the Goa government done to publicise the State during this festive season? We are just going ahead randomly, without any plan,” the senior tourism professional said.
Now, the grouse people of Goa have is that the tourists coming here don’t respect the local culture, don’t behave in a civilised manner and assume that the basic facilities and infrastructure - like the roads – are your kitchen, bedroom and toilet. They are giving a different vibe to Goa. Is this proposition correct? If yes, what can be done to correct it?
Responding to this question, Maria Victor said, “To get high value tourists, you need to give high value services. You need to give them the value of what they are spending. The Indian travellers today have high spending value. They have exposure to quality services. For the segment whom you want to behave appropriately, for them you need to have policies in place.”
Citing examples of Ooty, she said, “Here there is a policy which states that when you drive into the Nilgiris, nobody can carry plastic water bottles. Strict checking takes place to ensure that the rule is implemented. There’s another policy that if you are building any infrastructure facility, it has to be done on existing structures. This is a high value proposition.”
In earlier days, Goa used to get ‘hippies’, who were high value tourists. They did not have to spend too much, but had a great holiday. They did not defecate on the road or spoil the environment.
Responding to this statement, Darshan Bhatia said, “The hippies were much lesser in number. They couldn’t have an impact on the pace substantially. Now the numbers have changed, with almost 200 flights coming to Goa every day.”
“We can’t stop anyone from coming, be it high or low spending tourists. Everybody wants to have high spending tourists. But then we have high spending tourists from North India, who don’t know how to behave. But there are low spending but well behaved tourists. We need to have rules regarding the dos and don’ts and these should be strictly implemented.”