One of the first top of the line items on his wishlist was a 35 storey viewing tower on Baga beach. Next are theme parks, water kingdoms and thelikes. On the face of it, they are fine, but isn’t that what all major urbantown based tourist destinations are doing?Do people come to Goa to go up atower to watch the beach and the water when they are already on the beach? Againtheme parks and water kingdoms sync with Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai, whichare artificially created cities. Goa is a gift of nature which needs to beconsumed and preserved.
To save Goa, you need to lessen the burden on the land,not enhance it. When the state finds it impossible to have two waste managementplants in the two districts or have door to door collection of waste, it’scriminal to think of water parks and aquariums that will add to the garbage tonnage.The tourism policy needs to start with a clean-up policy. Before starting atourism promotion board, which will be a parking lot of politicians in need ofofficial cars and perks, it needs coordination between tourism, the pollutioncontrol board, the TCP and the urban development department on issues of construction of homesand hotels, waste managementand zoning changes. The policy must work towardsless concrete and more preservation of Goa’s architecture and skyline.
Taking Goa’s tourism inwards away from the coast tothe hinterland and the backwaters has been spoken of but as a mere lip servicetowards sustainable tourism. Fishing and boating in the backwaters, homestaysin the hinterland talukas should be pushed to give more of Goa rather thanrestrict it to the two kilometreCalangute to Baga stretch or the Colva area ofthe south.
Lastly, can we locals have something for us in the policy? Somespaces and places that look like Goa and not a poor copy of Las Vegas or Dubai.
