Goa’s charter graph aims for a liftoff

With premium hotels starting to allocate rooms to tour operators to be sold to inbound charters, tourism stakeholders see a ray of hope for an increase in foreign arrivals.

This, despite the fact that the cost of flying to Goa and the room pricing of luxury resorts, appear to be pulling domestic tourists towards Asian destinations.

“Hotels have restarted allocating rooms after the pandemic enabling us to sell to inbound charters and this will definitely see an increase in foreign tourists taking us to the core of tourism of the past,” reasons Orlando Nunes, General Manager of Trail Blazers India.

If Nunes is optimistic, Ernest Dias, Chief Operations Officer of Sita Travels, is cautious.

“Room allocation is good but the pricing matters. If a foreigner gets a cheaper room elsewhere, he will move there just as the Indians are doing,” justifies Dias.

He further argues, “Charter tourists come because the flights and rooms are reasonably priced for them and for hoteliers, realising that Indians are opting to fly elsewhere, allocation was their next option.”

Nunes, however, sees it a bit differently. “Last season was difficult because we could not sell rooms to inbound charters and since our clients come to stay for a few weeks, the hotel rates did not fit into their purses.”

“It is understood that hotels have their own costs to meet, but when the pricing gets too high, clients look at other places and Goa is one place that is far higher than many Asian countries,” reasons Dias.

“A flight ticket from Delhi to Goa is more expensive than to a destination like Vietnam or Cambodia or even Dubai,” adds Dias.

On the other hand, Rehsma Alves of Southern Experience is of the opinion that room allocation will have a meagre impact on the coming season, as she lays all her eggs on domestic tourists calling the shots in Goa for a few more seasons.

“Indians will dominate our market and with Prime Minister Modi’s make-in-India appeal, I am of the opinion that Indians will continue to come here. A handful opting to go out, will not change the picture,” surmises Alves.

Tourism in Goa has survived with domestic tourists patronising Goa since the pandemic. Tourists from across the country kept the economy on a roll, doing far better than many other States.

“I still believe Indian tourists will keep tourism robust in Goa. They will continue to be our mainstay, not only for the next season but the future.  We will have Indians going out of the country but they will continue being our largest market,” thinks Alves.

“Our Indian market will continue to be the largest market unless our international market multiples three or four times and that is something I cannot see happening so soon,” perceives Alves.

Dias from Sita Travels is on another page, seeing Indians opting for foreign countries to celebrate weddings and host conferences, once the mainstay of Goa tourism.

“Indians today have started going abroad to celebrate their personal functions and even for conferences, because the pricing abroad is cheaper and the environment equally or more attractive,” says Dias, whose company handles a large portfolio of such clients.

“Occupancy was low in the last few months but we are not too worried or too casual because we think the drop in clients was because of elections,” admitted the manager of a luxury resort in North Goa.

“The Election Code of Conduct made things worse,” he added.

“We stopped allocation of rooms soon after the pandemic because we were not sure of the response of foreign clients after the pandemic and preferred to stay with our local crowd. Things have changed,” explained the manager, referring to the current season.

Trade insiders are of the opinion that luxury resorts would not budge their pricing, but expect tweaks and turns in establishments where overheads are not too pricey.

The coming season though, is expected to be much better than the one just concluded.