- Monday, January 06, 2025
They claim the high-spending foreign tourists are largely missing this time, and overall occupancy at the shacks was low
By: India Weekly
THOUGH Goa ushered in the New Year with residents and tourists thronging its famous beaches, beach shack owners’ lament that the footfall was much lower this time.
Beach shacks are built using eco-friendly material such as bamboo, wooden poles and palm leaves, and the government allows unemployed Goan residents to operate these shacks during the peak tourist season from September 1 to May 31.
The Goa Shack Owners Welfare Society president Cruz Cardozo told Indian Express that “though the footfall has increased over the last few days, it is nowhere where it used to be”.
He claimed that the high-spending foreign tourists are largely missing this time, and overall occupancy at the shacks was low. At Ozran beach, a tourist hot-spot, the occupancy is around 30 per cent.
Expressing concern over falling occupancy he observed that people are probably choosing to go to Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Cardozo noted that there has been an increase in domestic tourists visiting to these shacks, but they hardly spend.
However, Goa tourism minister Rohan Khaunte told PTI that the New Year celebrations went on peacefully with tourists re-imposing faith in the coastal state.
He also claimed that most of the hotels, including the high-end ones, registered full occupancy.
Expensive destination
But of late Goa’s tourism industry has been drawing social media flak with users complaining about expensive flights, cabs and hotels, and deteriorating tourism infrastructure.
In many social media posts, the members reconted their bitter experience in Goa, and argued that going to Sri Lanka, Vietnam or Thailand is much cheaper and their experience was much better.
The chatter on social media drew attention of the government, as tourism happens to be the mainstay of Goan economy.
The Goa government had issued a statement in Novemeber arguing that comparing a state in India to another country like Sri Lanka was an “inaccurate perspective”.
They acknowledged that Goa does face challenges of “limited scheduled international air connectivity”, and the state government is working closely with the central government to improve them.
Dwindling foreign tourists
After the Covid 19 pandemic, Goa has witnessed a drastic fall in foreign tourist arrivals, while the domestic tourist segment has crossed pre-pandemic levels.
This decline has left a big hole in the tourism revenue – as international visitors and chartered flights bring contribute substantially to the state’s coffers.
According to data shared by the Ministry of Tourism last year, when the Covid 19 pandemic hit in 2020, 303,000 foreign tourists visited Goa.
In 2021, during the second Covid wave, it dwindled to 22,000. Ever since the numbers have seen a steady rises with 175,000 foreign tourists visiting the state in 2022, and last year it crossed 400,000.
However, these numbers are way below the pre-pandemic years when over 934,000 foreign tourists visited Goa in 2018, and 937,000 in 2019.
On the other hand domestic tourism has seen a sharp rise and last year it was over 8 million, and higher than pre-pandemic levels. (Agencies)
