Chartered through turbulent past, but future remains unchartered

Monday, November 4, will mark 40 years since the first international charter flight arrived in Goa. That landing changed the course of tourism in the State. It’s been a tumultuous four decades for the tourism industry, a period during which it came to depend on charters and saw economic growth but also fluttered in fright at the fickleness of the industry. ALEXANDRE MONIZ BARBOSA reviews the role that charter tourism played in catapulting Goa high on the scale of favoured destinations, where it stands today and what next for the industry
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When at 10.10 am on November 4, 1984, the first charter flight operated by Condor landed at Dabolim Airport, it brought along 52 tourists and deadweight of 500 kg that consisted of a spares and a maintenance kit.

The latter was required as Dabolim did not have a servicing facility for DC-10 aircraft. That wasn’t all. The airport lacked the then modern communication facilities in the form of telex, there was just one counter that was shared by the tour operators as well as the hotels hosting the tourists, and the luggage conveyor belt was not functioning. There were also doubts whether the night landing facilities were working adequately, as the return flight (from Kathmandu) would land at 9.50pm bringing in another batch of German tourists.

The above details have been extracted from reports that appeared on Herald, on the day of arrival of the first charter and the following day. That was exactly 40 years ago and looking back it may not have been the best of starts to Goa’s charter tourism aspirations, just 52 tourists and an airport that fell far below international expectations, but four decades later, as one reviews how foreign charters changed the fortunes of Goa tourism, one can only wonder whether those who were there at the start had imagined the transformation that would occur after that first flight.

The Early Years

Today, in 2024, the pioneers of charter tourism in Goa, those who foresaw that the future of tourism in Goa would be in package deals for international tourists, and determined that the nascent industry needed that infusion of foreign charter tourists to sustain it, are few. But there are many who do recall how it all started, and perhaps it did with the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOG-M) Retreat of 1983 that Goa hosted and through which the world saw Goa as more than a mere dot on the hippie trail.

“With the 1983 CHOG-M retreat, Goa was projected worldwide as a beach leisure destination. The first charter came a year later in 1984. In the following years, 1985-86 in particular, there were many visits of dignitaries, like that of King Hussein of Jordan, the Queen of Netherlands, the Royal couple of Norway and also Pope John Paul II,” recalls U D Kamat, a former Director of Tourism who nurtured the industry in the 1990s, and says that these visits projected Goa internationally.

Perhaps they did, for as per available data, in 1984 the year the first charter flight landed, the total number of tourists to visit Goa was 6,69,992 of which 90.71 percent were domestic, while 9.29 were foreigners. A year later, the percentage of foreigners visiting Goa rose to double figures and by 1995, a decade after the first charter flight, stood at 20.69 percent of the total 11,07,705 tourists that holidayed in Goa that year. It kept growing and in the pre-pandemic years, the charter tourists had been accounting for over 50 percent of the total foreign tourists’ arrivals.

The year 1984 was, undoubtedly, a turning point for tourism, when Goa, a Union Territory at that time, tasted the lucre of tourism with the possibility of welcoming budget airlines and package holiday deals. Through charters, Goa had been made accessible to foreign travellers who would otherwise never have the financial means required for an overseas holiday thousands of miles away from their home country.

“Charters started, but what happened was that cheap tourists began to arrive, those who otherwise could not afford a holiday abroad,” says Kamat.

Yet, for the embryonic tourism destination, the low pricing was necessary, argue tourism insiders, to entice the low-budget tourists who would otherwise not consider a holiday abroad. A report in the local media stated that in 1990 the cheapest charter package from London to Goa was priced at UK Pounds 400 (at that time approximately Rs 12,200) while a seat on a scheduled airline would have cost Rs 15,000. In later years, it was this low pricing that would undo the charter operators, as will be seen later.

The Rising Tide

Charters gave Goa a new sheen, taking it from being a hippy haven to a land of sun, sand and surf and the State began to grow as a tourist destination in the mid-1980s. The charter flights unloaded in Goa an entirely different set of tourists and the State, as the welcoming and accommodating host, scampered to cater to their demands, giving them not just rooms to stay but swimming pools too, though the sea was just metres away from the room. What resulted was hotels and guesthouses springing up all along the coast. When the charters first landed, there was the Taj Group’s Fort Aguada, Village and Hermitage in the North, and Bogmalo and Majorda beach resorts in the South among the starred hotels. Cidade de Goa had just opened its doors and South Goa’s sand dunes were still undulating in the breeze and remained so until the 1990s, but most today are lost in the concrete that dominates the coast.

The party-destination tag that Goa was bestowed over the years, with beach parties, nightlife, bars, clubs that combined to edge out traditions, heritage and social life, also led to the marginalisation of the locals and tourism-focused developments took precedence.

But the tourism industry did not mind. The cash registers were jingling and it led to more investment in the form of a construction boom that began in the 1990s and real estate companies cashed in with rent-back facilities for apartments that were sold as investments, rather than flats.

Projects were envisaged along the coast, where anybody could book a studio apartment or a single-bedroom apartment that the builder would rent back from the owner for a certain period. This apartment was then made available to charter tourists. Simultaneously, budget hotels and high-end resorts began springing up, some in close vicinity to each other. It was a win-win situation for the stakeholders, but that’s when the concretization of the coast also led to the green brigade raising the red flag. It’s a tussle that still persists.

There was indeed an influx of charter tourists in the 1990s. “What used to happen at that time was that we had a large number of the English (tourists). We used to get almost eight charters a week from the UK. We had Thomas Cook, Thomson, Flying Colours, Odyssey and others,” says Charles Bonifacio, a former TTAG president, who was with the Alfran Group that had interests in real estate and tourism.

It was around this time, the 1990s and later, that tourism in Goa came to depend on the charters. “You can say that in the beginning charters were very important and they set the tone for the sort of tourism that would come up on the beach belt during those days,” admits Jack Sukhija, current president of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa.

That it did and tourism stakeholders do testify to a win-win situation for both the industry and the client.

“It worked out very well in the early years as charters were confirmed business for six months. At that time there was just no tourists during the monsoon, not even the domestic tourists came to Goa in the rains. Operationally too it was satisfactory as the average stay (of charter tourists) was of two weeks, which meant a check-in and a checkout every 15 days, reducing pressure on the front office,” says Ralph de Sousa, of the de Souza Group.

It also brought other changes and how charters pushed forward the tourism agenda in Goa can be determined by the manner in which shacks mushroomed in the State. For the charter tourists, the shacks were their haven, the space where they could spend hours nursing a drink and staring at the sea. Just five years after the first charter, for the tourism season of 1989-90, the total number of shacks in the State were 45 and mainly located at Calangute, Baga, Colva and Benaulim.

The following season, recalls Kamat, the number was more than doubled to 110 and gradually these kept increasing and today there are about 350 shacks all along the Goa coast, from the northernmost to the southernmost beach.

Yet, despite competition from other destinations, Goa’s charter traffic increased, with only the country of origin changing. Some of Goa’s main charter markets of the past have been Germany, UK, Finland, Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The Russians who discovered Goa in the 1990s displaced the British to form the major chunk of charter tourists.

It was around that time that Goa, enamoured with the almost endless Russian charter flights, rushed to focus on that one market. Tourism pioneers and many from the industry forward were not happy with this, but as other charter operators opted out, the options were limited.

The Ebb Begins

Goa, by the beginning of the millennium had a mix of hotels ranging from low-budget to luxury resorts, a situation that still exists and so brings tourists of all budgets to the State. It has therefore created the eco-system for the budget tourist as well as the big spenders, and within this charter tourism flourished, at least till a certain period. “Goa was becoming very popular, so the market increased. People did quite well because the tourism industry depended on the charters,” admits de Sousa.

Goa’s best charter season was 2013-14, when 1,128 charter flights landed at the Dabolim airport, bringing 2,16,425 tourists. It has not been able to reach those figures again – neither in flights nor in tourists. (See graph). The very next season, 2014-15, Condor, the pioneer in charter flights to the State, stopped its Goa operations and in 2019, Finnair announced that it would stop coming to Goa. The same year Thomas Cook UK collapsed and that perhaps was the biggest blow to Goa’s charter tourism.

“Up to 9/11 (2001) everything was good, the millennium was great in Goa. It was somewhere after 2010 that things started changing as there were many charters that were folding up as operational costs started going up. They reduced their presence and the smaller companies were bought by bigger companies,” says de Sousa.

Stakeholders admit that wars in other countries and economic recessions led to travellers opting for short haul destinations and then came the pandemic from which Goa’s tourism is still recovering.

But aside from the international factors, what went against Goa, admit tourism insiders, and were the old challenges that were never sorted out by the authorities. Even as tourism kept growing, certain issues lingered from the early days.

“The challenges have never changed till now. The garbage menace has been there right from the beginning. We would put our own people and clean stretches of beaches, which we are still doing today at Calangute, Candolim and Baga. The taxi issue also continues. A tourist from North Goa finds it difficult to hire a cab and go to South Goa,” says Bonifacio.

There is agreement to this across the board and Aloo Gomes Pereira, COO of Trail Blazer Tours, says, “If we do a cleaning of the beaches, we can revive.”

Revival though depends on whether travellers from Western Europe are ready and willing to return to Goa in big numbers. Goa is receiving charters today, but they originate in Eastern Europe and the operations are very unlike the early charters. “The Eastern European market is different. Though they come it is not an assured business as the numbers are not constant. Who were very good were the Germans, Swiss and Scandinavians,” says de Sousa.

Current

Scenario

The charter graph would soon take a nosedive as traffic has been dropping consistently. Admits Bonifacio, “At that time we were getting mostly retired people. They wanted to spend their holiday in Goa and they had an avenue to come. Now they don’t have an avenue to come, because there are no flights. Besides, those people cannot afford to come to Goa any longer and they prefer cheaper destinations like Turkey, Thailand, destinations to which they have charters.”

Currently, there is a single flight from the UK. Last season UK had about 20,000 charter tourists. Sukhija believes that the number of British tourists should increase by 50 percent this season, while the Russian numbers are more or less stable, with this season expected to be better than the last one. “Last season was like 50 percent of what it was pre-Covid. Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan are relatively new markets and there is also a Polish charter expected,” says Sukhija.

So, against this backdrop, how long can charters continue to play a role in Goa? “There are differing views on this. There are companies that aggressively go after charters and we have some four or five of these. Charters will continue but I think they will be increasingly marginalised,” says Sukhija.

There is agreement from Bonifacio to this, who says, “If you look at what charters were and what they are now, then I would say they are playing a very marginal role, especially at the higher segment, like five-star properties.”

Bonifacio adds, “We are no more dependent on charter tourism but are looking at FITs and those ready to spend in Goa. We are moving away from this mass tourism to quality tourism. There are more people getting into the five-star and four-star segment than the two-star and three-star and that’s a good sign.”

But there’s a catch and Bonifacio explains it, saying, “For it to continue we have to improve our infrastructure and transport system which is still very bad.” Though primarily a beach destination and being marketed as such, access to beaches, illumination of beaches to make them safe and secure, cleanliness of the beaches are aspects that are not a priority in the State.

In agreement, Gomes Pereira says, “It is sad, what is happening to Goa and the destination will disappear as far as international tourists are concerned. We have to make the change. There is too much of over development. Every step you take there is a hotel.”

Gomes Pereira further reasons out the drop in charters saying, “The cost of the destination went up, Goa became a little pricey and was getting dirtier. That killed us. Besides, it is a long haul destination. Now Thailand and Sri Lanka, despite being farther away from UK, were cheaper. Goa is getting a bad name. We have not kept our beaches or our resort areas clean.”

But though there has been a shift in the tourism markets Goa attracts, with the number of domestic tourists now far ahead of the international traveller, there continue to be certain segments that have not been able to evolve out of the charter segment and remain dependent on charters, some of the two-star and three-star hotels in particular.

Gomes Pereira, therefore, calls for a revival, and does admits that while charters remain important, primarily as they bring in foreign exchange, Goa Tourism is today largely driven by the domestic market, especially the wedding and MICE tourism and that these cannot and should not be ignored. “Every segment is important. I am not saying wipe out the domestic, I am not saying wipe out the weddings. The basket has to be filled with a variety and Goa can’t concentrate on any one market. If there is only one segment, it will dictate and bring down the prices,” advises Gomes Pereira.

Shift in Charter System

The tourism industry in Goa has come a long way from those early days of charter tourism, and the number of backpacking foreign tourists who put Goa on the international map, has dwindled to about 40 percent of what it was at its peak.

Simultaneous to Goa expanding it tourism infrastructure in the form of hotels and restaurants, the charter operators were facing issues of their own and this led to many airlines folding up. “Charter companies are budget companies, there was a luxury segment also, but they too were budgeted and their margins were very thin. They used to work on volumes. So an increase in any operational cost, would make it unviable,” says de Sousa.

It was therefore the low pricing that led to the operators being unable to sustain themselves financially. “Everybody thinks that the charter business is the most lucrative business but I have to say that they work with very thin margins. If the seats do not sell they are in trouble and then they sell it at a discounted price, sometimes so highly discounted that it is not to break even but to cut losses. Who benefits is the hotels as they do not compromise and the travellers who get a cheap seat,” explains Gomes Pereira, who has been with the tourism industry and handling charters since 1987.

Over the years, there has also been an evolution and, Gomes Pereira claims, that charter operators today are rate takers rather than rate makers, whereby a five-star hotel can dictate its terms to the charter operators, rather than the other way around, when charter tourism first entered Goa and insiders state that the operators in Europe decided the costs of the rooms in Goa.

The concept of charters is also now slowly changing. Today, most of the charters that fly to Goa operate as scheduled airlines, wherein they do not necessarily sell a package but will also offer merely a ticket, which allows anybody to buy a seat on the flight.

The option of running as a schedule flight works out better for the airlines and the reasoning behind this is simple. “As a scheduled airline, there is less possibility of seats going empty. UK has a huge Goan community and they want to travel directly to Goa. Then there are many Britishers who rent out apartments and don’t want a package holiday, just a direct flight to Goa. A charterer has to sell a package that includes the flight, hotel and transfers, a scheduled airline doesn’t,” says Gomes Pereira.

Another reason for this change has come in the form of online booking, that is turning out to be the biggest competitor to charter operators, state Gomes Pereira. A traveller today has the flexibility of choosing the cheapest flight and hotel from the comfort of his home and does not need the services of an agent. These online options could, at times, offer more lucrative deals than a charter operator.

Conclusion

Forty years later, it is clear that charter tourism has impacted Goa in varied ways. Undeniably, there have been economic benefits, especially in the post-mining period, along with recognition globally as a favoured destination, but the situation cannot remain the same. Everything has an expiry date, and so too will it be with charters in Goa. The State today is more of a party destination and charter tourists form but a fraction of the percentage of total tourists who visit Goa.

It is the undeniable truth that if not for the domestic tourists, the post-pandemic seasons would have been a disaster for the industry in Goa. Hoteliers too have begun to cater to the requirements of the domestic tourists. “In the beginning the hoteliers were very enthusiastic about charters, but when they saw that the holidayers would nurse a beer the entire morning and read books, they too changed. Today, major hotels don’t want charter tourists and feel that the domestic tourists are bigger spenders,” says Kamat.

This change too is quite visible in the manner in which the industry is responding to the situation. Bonifacio says, “We are now looking at clients who are ready to spend.” All in the industry would nod vigorously to this statement. Finally, what the industry wants is tourists who will spend and the domestic tourist is doing it – whether in shacks, restaurants, markets or shopping for keepsakes. Charters may not provide such spenders and it may be time for Goa to change focus as well as markets, for the charter adventure may be ending soon. Or, as Gomes Pereira said, it could be revived, but it would need to be done from a different perspective.

Herald Goa
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