The contrast couldn’t be starker. On one hand, Goa’s Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte told waiting media persons that Goa’s tourism sector was booming, registering what he said was a 6.23 % growth in tourist arrival numbers between January and September this year as compared to the same period last year. Foreign tourist numbers, he said, touched 3.36 lakh, a rise of nearly 30%. On the other hand, a brief perusal of stories by the national media covering tourism in Goa reveals what the dominant narrative is. “Just Delhi by the Sea” reads one headline. “Cringiest DJs. Beaches are dumping pits,” reads another.
To Khaunte, these articles are deliberately timed in the last quarter of every year (around the time Goa’s tourism season starts) to convince people to go elsewhere. “We ignore these reports because for us, numbers have never been an issue,” was what Khaunte said at the press conference. Though, to be fair, he did admit that Goa has issues like that of overpriced taxis, and cautioned taxi owners that they should be aware that they are killing the goose that lays golden eggs. What Khaunte failed to concede is that his government is no less guilty of killing the same goose.
What’s clear from the content that has been appearing online is that Goa is losing what made it an attractive destination in the first place -- pristine beaches, open-minded and welcoming locals and a laidback vibe. None of those are adjectives that you can apply to Goa anymore. Goa’s beaches are no longer pristine but are crowded, strewn with garbage and chaotic. Locals have turned apathetic or worse, hostile towards tourists, and the laid-back vibe has made way for traffic jams, and people zooming through village routes on rented vehicles and hopping from one destination to the next. The government has had an active hand in all of this -- approving constructions left, right and centre. Paddy fields, hillsides, sand dunes and beach cliffs that were central to giving Goa its calming vibe have all made way commercialisation.
To ignore all of the above and then claim that Goa’s tourism is booming because numbers are rising betrays a profound delusion of what makes Goa’s tourism click and what makes Goa an attractive destination in the first place. In fact, one can well make the argument that numbers are precisely Goa’s problem -- too many of the wrong kind of tourists and too few of the right kind. It is no surprise that foreign tourists have been giving Goa the miss. No one likes to have to share space with Indian tourists.
To improve, Goa needs to start cracking down on those who are ruining it. Both those who are doing so on account of behaviour that betrays a lack of civic sense, harassing fellow tourists, being loud, filthy and other such obnoxious behaviour. But more than that, Goa needs to crack down on those who are ruining it from within. The greedy politicians are allowing illegal constructions and commercial establishments to flourish. Their corruption ensures terrible roads, haphazard and unplanned coastal areas and worst of all, protection for those who are destroying Goa’s environment.
The national level commentators are right when they say Goa does not resemble Goa anymore, but looks more and more like Delhi or for that matter, any other chaotic city of the subcontinent. If the government of the day fails to recognise and reverse this trend, the day is not far when Goa really is just ‘Delhi by the sea.’
