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Goa feels the Christmas 'chill'; air fares drop, fewer tourists

The Goan Network | DECEMBER 25, 2015, 12:00 AM IST

PANAJI

High-flying tickets to the festive destination of Goa appear to have been grounded. Flight tickets to Goa have come crashing down for the festive season and more especially the New Year eve, when tourist inflow was always at its peak.

A Mumbai-Goa flight ticket which went for over Rs 20,000 last year on New Year's eve, is now available for just around Rs 2000 this year. This year around, at the time of going to the press, a ticket on a SpiceJet Goa-Mumbai flight on December 31 was available for just Rs 2,111.

There is an added reason why airfares should have been higher. Christmas this year falls on a Friday thereby making it a long 3-day weekend. Surprisingly, a Mumbai to Goa air ticket on a Go Air flight, which departs at 21:05 on December 24 and reaches at 22:05 was available for Rs 9,754.

For New Year's eve, tourists ideally prefer to arrive sometime in the afternoon of December 31 and not later than that. But, even for that, airfares remained within reasonable range. A seat on an Indigo flight, which departs from Mumbai at 1:35 pm and reaches Goa at 2:45 pm on December 31, was available for Rs 4,413.

If Delhi-Goa and Mumbai-Goa airfares are down, same is the case with Bangalore-Goa route as well. An air ticket from Bangalore to Goa for December 31 is easily available for Rs 4,500-5,500. Even for Chennai-Goa travel on December 31, an air-ticket is easily available for around Rs 5,000.

High air fares in the last week of December have always been a concern for tourism in Goa. Last year, there were many instances when tourists from Mumbai and Delhi had booked hotel rooms earlier but later had to cancel their bookings as flight seats weren’t available for less than an astronomical sum of Rs 25,000.

Low air fares clearly indicate a slowdown. It is high time that fundamental issues like taxi-operators over-charging and misbehaving and hotels asking for sky-high tariffs are addressed.

Ralph de Sousa, chairman of de Souza Group, said, “Tourist foot-falls have fallen this year compared to last year. Plenty of rooms are available on Christmas and New Year. The average hotel occupancy in Goa this year in December has come down to 70-75% compared to 90% last year”.

Just how badly slowdown has affected tourism is evident from the fact that flight-tickets are easily available from Delhi to Goa for December 31 in the range of Rs 6,500-7,500, while people travelling the same route even in the monsoon month of June this year had to shell out air fare in excess of Rs 10,000.

Although the dominant reason for low air fares is fewer tourists, but certain other reasons were also cited behind this trend. Nilesh Shah, founder, Purshottam Bhagwan & Associates, said, “A number of airlines have increased frequency to Goa this year, which has also contributed to fall in air fares. But, it is clear that the demand is low this year compared to previous year”.

While air fares are low, hotels haven’t reduced their tariffs around Christmas and New Year significantly. Valigno Dias, general manager at Trade Wings, said, “Low interest in air travel to Goa is also because hotel rates are very steep and are almost unaffordable”.

Low air fare particularly in Mumbai-Goa circuit is also due to other reasons as Dias continued, “People prefer to drive down to Goa in their own vehicles. This is also because taxi-drivers over-charge tourists”, he said.

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