A tourism transformation in the making in Goa

It's not surprising to read on mainstream media, or social media, of tourists misbehaving.

So, when on the eve of Statehood Day, there was yet another such incident reported, highlighted rather, in the media, all it might have drawn was a shrug of the shoulders of Goans who have got quite accustomed to such incidents.

This incident was a rather mild one, and a police statement said it ended in a compromise of sorts.

What happened was a tourist driving a rent a cab scratched two other cars, and on stopping his vehicle took the speaker from the vehicle placed it on the road and started dancing.

If not for the fact that this happened on a busy road and damaged, even partially, two other cars, it would have been laughable.

The question that arises from here is what makes tourists behave in such a manner when in Goa? Is it that Goa displays a lax attitude towards the tourists that allows them to so behave with impunity?

In the past, Goa's unsavoury run-ins with tourist deaths has drawn attention to a State that gives it a notoriety that singled it out for a bashing in the national media, and depending on the nationality of the victim, also the international one.

In the past years, there was the death, or rather the murder of a national figure, after what police claimed she was forced to consume chemicals and this set Goa up for scrutiny from news outlets whose headlines and comments left no doubt on readers minds that Goa is a narco-tourism destination, and so best avoided by families.

The fact is that lakhs of tourists visit Goa annually. A large percentage of them do not even seek to know where drugs would be available.

Those tourists who visit heritage sites, who hop on and hop off tour buses as they are driven around the coastal areas, who go on a river cruise in the evening and are back in their hotel rooms by dinner time do not come to Goa for drugs. And, these are most definitely a majority.

You just have to look around to notice this.

Goa needs to decide what kinds of tourists it wants. Some months ago, there were statements from the government of the unsavoury incidents being because of 'quantity tourists'.

This wasn't new, as ministers have said this in the past and spoken of attracting quality tourists to Goa.

That, however, has remained merely statements, with no marketing campaigns to make this a reality and or even show purpose of mind in changing the tourism profile of the state.

Just recently, there have been reports that starred luxury hotels are considering releasing rooms in bulk to charter operators for the next season.

This is good news to the charter operators, who since the Pandemic, or rather after opening up for tourism after the Pandemic, were struggling to get good rooms to sell to charter tourists.

In the absence of charter and foreign tourists, the wheels of Goa's tourism industry were kept turning by the domestic tourists.

Goa, however, has to decide on the future of tourism and what direction the industry should take. The debate of quality versus quantity has to reach a finality. It cannot remain a debate for always.

This Statehood Day, is as good as any other to take time off to decide on how Goa tourism should progress.

We have four months before the next season starts, time enough to start planning and even implementing some of those plans.

Of course, you will not see results in the first season, four months is too short a time for that. You may start seeing a change four years from now, but there is always the first step to be taken.