Goa’s declining foreign footfall is becoming an international story

In mid-May, four articles on Goa tourism in the national and international media painted a very gloomy picture of the industry in the state. Three of these pieces were in international news sites, while one was on an Indian website and all popped up over a single weekend, casting a pessimistic view on the future of tourism in Goa. The word ‘abandon’, in relation to Goa, featured in two of the headlines and the word ‘failure’ in another.

First, express.co.uk titled its piece ‘Tourists abandon beautiful seaside dubbed country’s ‘party capital’, while travelandtourworld.com said, ‘Why foreign tourists are abandoning Goa: The collapse of international beach tourism in India’. In contrast, bbc.com was more guarded with the headline: ‘Foreign tourists are falling out of love with Goa – here’s why.’ The Indian website, businesstoday.in looked at it differently and said: ‘Goa could have been our Bali: Investor Shankar Sharma tears into India’s tourism failures’.

Why these articles are relevant, perhaps even important, is because each has something that Goa tourism can learn from. For instance, bbc.com raises a pertinent question when it asks: ‘why are foreign visitors, who’ve patronised the relaxed budget getaway since the hippie heyday of the 1960s and 1970s, now turning away?’ Some reasons listed are less spending money with tourists, cheaper and closer destinations, cumbersome visa procedures, and then adds ‘litter and garbage in Goa’.

When Goa spends crores on beach cleaning and waste management, dirty beaches and garbage piling up has been a long and festering issue that is repeatedly spoken of in relation to drop in tourist numbers. But, that is not the only issue.

The travelandtourworld.com says: ‘While millions of Indian citizens now frequent the beaches of North and South Goa annually, the unique atmosphere that once captivated Western Europeans has been significantly altered. The tranquil, slow-paced environment, often referred to locally as the sushegad (sic) lifestyle, is reported to have been replaced by dense urbanisation and overcrowded beachfronts.’

Again, not an unfamiliar grouse from tourists, one has only to leaf through past articles on tourism to find that urbanisation and crowded beaches have been mentioned earlier, too.

If that were all, maybe Goa tourism could still course correct before the next season begins, but express.co.uk goes on to say that ‘other factors include the spike in hotel prices in Goa, due to its surging popularity within India, high taxi fares due to local unions pushing back against ride hailing app services, and the superior affordability and availability of resorts in alternative destinations.’

Whether it be hotels or taxi rides, Goa is expensive, there can be little debate on this, how then will it compete with other destinations offering similar facilities?

When one reads these reasons for the fall, it’s clear that there is nothing new that any of the writers of the articles are saying. And, it’s not as if Goa tourism is unaware of the issues raised. The local media has written about this repeatedly, tourism stakeholders have flagged them, but they remain unresolved. And that’s where the problem lies — the apathy of the tourism managers to correct it.

Interesting is also the article on businesstoday.in, that speaks of tourism in India, with just a reference to Goa, which has been used in the headline, perhaps reinforcing the notion that Goa draws eyeballs or, in the age of the internet, clicks. In this piece, investor Shankar Sharma says, ‘Goa could have been our Bali, Phuket. But for that, we need a swinging liberal culture, not moral policing. And yes, we need garbage-free roads.’

Now, not everybody in Goa would want to back a project that aims to make Goa into another Bali or opt for a ‘swinging liberal culture’ in the state. I certainly don’t advocate that, but Shankar also speaks of garbage-free roads and makes a pertinent point that ‘Here we only talk, and that’s where it ends’. He, as it has been pointed earlier, is not wrong in stating that.

Tourism is, of course, a great talking point in Goa, but it leads to little action. Certainly if issues that had been flagged in the past had been attended to, then the repetitiveness wouldn’t jar as much. All it requires is the will to change what is happening.