Vivek Menezes
An absurd and embarrassing public free-for all ensued after Ramanuj Mukherjee tweeted (on the social media platform now called X) that “Tourism is Goa is down in the dumps.”
From the handle @law_ninja, where he has 23600 followers, he attached an obviously fraudulent chart that depicted foreign arrivals in India’s smallest state plummeting from 6 million to 1.5 million over the past 10 years, and declared “Indian tourists still visiting, but soon likely to ditch it as word spreads about exploitation of tourists while there are so many cheaper comparable locations abroad.”
The numbers are ridiculously wrong – foreign arrivals in Goa have never even crossed one million – and the source of this “critique” is so insignificant to be meaningless, but @law_ninja’s post went viral. Hundreds replied with descriptions about negative experiences, including the journalist Shivam Vij: “Goa is the worst place in India when it comes to hospitality. It’s a contrast to the great hospitality in most of India: Kashmir, Rajasthan, Kerala are all fabulous.”
Alongside, there was also pushback to the criticism, with more reliable data, as well as an ill-advised police complaint about “public mischief” filed by the Goa government’s deputy director of tourism that claimed Mukherjee “disseminated false data through his social media X handles, thereby causing significant annoyance to local businesses and inducing fear or alarm within the local community.”
Now, with mindless “controversy” erupting over literal nonsense, everyone had the opportunity to grandstand, and Mukherjee tweeted directly to Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant: “Even if the data shared by me was incorrect, you must realise that the data itself did not make the post viral. This issue went viral because it led to an eruption of people’s feelings. Tourists went to Goa and felt cheated. They spoke about their grievances. People do not easily forget when they feel they were taken advantage of. This problem will keep snowballing if you do not address it at its roots [and] I am actually hopeful that this publicity wave will give you some political space necessary to make the changes you desperately need for Goan tourism surge again.”
In the ongoing melee, even Chetan Bhagat has taken up cudgels: “Here’s the thing about tourist places: you don’t have to go there. This is especially true of destinations that do not have a monopoly, such as a prime religious spot or a one-of-a-kind experience. Goa, beautiful as it might be, has become one such place…The roads in Phuket are better, the sea is bluer, the beaches are cleaner, the cabs are cheaper (and can be ordered via app), and the food and drink options are more plentiful. This is just Phuket. Thailand alone has several such destinations. There’s also Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and the Indian favourite, Dubai. All these places offer holidays at around the same price as Goa but with a better and more exotic experience.”
Bhagat’s take is shallow and contradictory, but he does have some actual recommendations - the usual refrain of “end the taxi cartel” and “lower the GST” – and it is to be appreciated that he also made something of an honest attempt to understand the problem in most logical way, which was to look in the mirror: “Sorry to call out my own, but if Goa is to become a safe tourist destination for foreigners, they need to feel comfortable, particularly on the beaches. Gawking, staring, going into the sea without proper swimwear, littering, and loud behaviour are issues with some domestic tourists, especially men.”
Here, then, is an actual glimmer of truth about the steady degradation of Tourism Goa, which was reiterated much more forcefully by Panjim businessman and writer Rohan Govenkar on his own social media: “You came to our beaches, dirtied them with your paan-spitting and wrapper-flinging habits, and now you call us filthy? You came to our shacks, ogled at foreigner women, harassed them for selfies, groped them for your cheap thrills, and now you complain that foreigners are not coming? You drove like maniacs on our narrow roads, blocked traffic to shoot your Bollywood-styled reels, and now you're grumbling that the traffic is chaotic? You came here and decided to buy a vacation home for the clean air and peaceful life, and got our hills and trees cut, and now you're whining about too much concrete? And what? Bali is better? Vietnam is better? Thailand is better? Why would they not be better? Look at the quality of tourists they get. And look at you.”
Govenkar speaks from the heart for most Goans, who keep on suffering the relentless onslaught of the worst tourists in the world, but it is one of the paradoxes of our times that this same beleaguered population has crafted some of the most remarkable contemporary tourism and hospitality success stories. For just one example, at the recent Conde Nast Top 50 Restaurant awards in Mumbai, an amazing 10 establishments from Goa grabbed honours with glee, a veritable parade of talent recognized amongst the best of the best. As one of the stars of that evening, the fourth-generation Panjim restauranteur Pranav Dhuri says, “With regards to the negative publicity Goa is getting from Indian sources, I’d like to advise them to do more research and check their facts. Some of the things may be true, but generalising everything isn't fair. We are always aiming at getting quality tourism to Goa.”
(Vivek Menezes is a writer and co-founder of the Goa Arts and Literature Festival)