Goa: Paradise Lost

“Tourism in Goa is now being developed on the basis of women, wine, drugs and the latest entrant, gambling. Thus, it is now attracting the wrong kind of crowd as tourists,” says social activist Sabina Martins. Surely, that creates conflict within the local community that is dependent on the tourism business, but doesn’t like the new corrupting influences.

Then there’s the issue of more and more of the real estate coming under the control of non-Goans.
As foreign tourists poured in, their stay became longer and some decided not to go back — like the Russians in Morjim, north Goa. In the last five years, affluent Indians have also started buying “second homes” in the state, fuelling a real estate boom. Flat prices rose from Rs. 800 per sq. ft. to over Rs. 8,000 even in far-off places within just five years. The result? While initially the locals prospered by selling their lands, the ill-effects followed soon.  

Goa has become a hotbed of conflict “with about 20 of the 189 villages always on the boil at any point of time due to various issues including new construction encroaching on forest or agriculture land and swimming pools of the rich outsiders consuming water meant for locals. Worse, basic amenities like hygiene, shelter and water is going out of reach for the locals,” says Martins.

Done in by Greed
The “death of Goa as a destination,” as Sujay Gupta puts it (he is writing a book on the drugs trade in Goa), was caused by “the local travel industry’s carelessness, fuelled by a government that has been rudderless and without vision.”

Arjun Sharma, managing director, Le Passage to India, which specialises in getting foreign tourists to the country, agrees. “Goa as a destination has always attracted the charter tourist, who comes with a group of other travellers and spends about 300 to 500 pounds for a two-week stay. Though charter tourists have reduced as a percentage of the total, Goa is still more popular among the ‘cost conscious traveller’, unlike Kerala that has positioned itself as a high-value destination,” he says.

But the local industry, intoxicated by the boom days, forgot this significant reality. Though its offering remained the same — sunny weather coupled with beaches that had low-cost shacks filled with fenny, beer and fish — the price tags only got heavier. “The local industry has been pennywise and pound foolish,” says Fidalgo’s Pathiyan. “We should have tariffs that are sustainable in the long-run and not look for immediate gains,” he says of the hotel industry that was used to charging as much as eight times the “normal” tariffs during the peak season.

Image: Prince Mathew Thomas

THE NEW GOA: Indian tourists are not enough to arrest the decline of tourism

Visa is a pain point too. In the last few years, stricter visa regulations have also had unintended consequences for Goa tourism. A Swedish tour operator for Goa says, on conditions of anonymity, that it takes almost two months to get a visa for someone from Sweden to come to Goa, whereas in Phuket (Indonesia), Vietnam and Malaysia, one gets visa on arrival. “It is not surprising that almost 26 charter planes from Scandinavian countries are coming to Phuket every week. Earlier, they used to come to Goa,” she says. Along with still-expensive hotels, even after tariffs were cut once the slowdown set in, visa expenses make holidays in Goa costlier by 600 euros or 500 pounds.

Industry veterans also blame poor marketing as one of the reasons Goa is losing its shine.
A complacent state administration has meant that other tourism-heavy states like Rajasthan and Kerala, or countries like Thailand, have stolen a march over Goa.  With more options coming up, tourists gave Goa a miss. “Thailand tourism has 40 billboards all around Moscow and Goa has three,” says a Russian tour operator in Goa who didn’t want to be named.

Adds his Indian friend, also from the industry: “How much of Goa is featured in the Incredible India campaign? It is instead full of Rajasthan tourism… we don’t even have anything close to Kerala’s God’s Own Country marketing initiative.”

Can Goa Reinvent Itself?
Ironically, tourism might still be Goa’s best bet as it constitutes about 35 percent of the economy and employs close to 40 percent of the working population. Though mining is another major constituent (almost 30 percent) of its economy, “in the long run only tourism can provide livelihood to Goans as natural resources are finite,” says Nitin Kunkolienkar, former president of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry. But he adds, “Tourism has to be clean and Goa has to become a family destination to attract more tourists.”

For that, Goa might have to go beyond its sun-and-beach offering. It doesn’t have to look too far for inspiration. Bali, Phuket and even Langkawi in Malaysia are other popular sun and beach destinations in the region. But each of them has taken a step ahead to build more attractions like cable cars, shark sanctuaries and nocturnal zoos. “Like in these places, Goa too needs a viable partnership between private enterprises and the government and both need to be forthright in their endeavour,” says P. Manoharan, Director, Tourism Malaysia.