With the recent rising number of incidents of crime against tourists in Goa, the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG) would like to clearly state that no one (local or tourist) should take the law into their own hands.
Both need to treat each other respectfully, following the law of the land (one as a guest and the other as a host). No one is above the law.
There have been numerous instances of harassment of tourists by touts standing on the road and moving on bikes. The police and home department need to look into this and strictly enforce the law to prevent such harassment.
The police also need to be sensitised and adequately trained to deal with such situations going forward and enforce the law appropriately.
Perhaps an empowered tourism police task force in each district/taluka needs to be formed that is directly meant to deal with such situations and is only answerable to the higher-ups (DGP/IGP/SP) with no political interference.
Proper enforcement of the law should be followed in true spirit by the police, and this will only happen when there is no interference from the political dispensation.
There are a lot of good initiatives begun by the government such as a single-window system in watersports, the Goa taxi app, schemes like the Young Transport Entrepreneurs Scheme, etc.
These initiatives require proper support from locals and tourists, along with the right implementation and enforcement from government agencies to be successful.
TTAG is in constant dialogue with the government on various tourism-related issues and, therefore, would urge the government to take measures to make locals as well as tourists feel safe in our state at all times.