The Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom has announced that the Indian government will shortly resume the e-visa facility for UK citizens visiting India. The freeze on the e-visas was seen as a significant hurdle for tourist States like Goa that bank heavily on visitors from that region.
An e-visa is granted to a foreigner whose sole objective of visiting India is recreation, holidaying, sightseeing, short family visits or for medical treatment. India allows citizens from 156 countries to avail of the e-visa. However, the suspension of the e-visa facility became a stumbling block forcing many Britishers to cancel their bookings done prior.
While the e-visas are being restored, there is no clarity about the extent it will help Goa's tourism which is already peaking. With the procedures yet to be executed, it could take somewhere between January-end and February to understand the implications of the move. Goa may not be an instant beneficiary of the decision because a crucial part of the tourism season, which ends in March, is lost. Britishers mainly book their visits five to six months in advance, including their stays. From the tourism perspective, competing countries like Sri Lanka, Egypt and Thailand have benefitted from India's decision to suspend e-visas to the UK, seen more as a retaliatory move.
While there is an understandable feel-good factor for stakeholders in Goa, there is no high hope of an influx of Britishers. However, lessons need to be learnt about being alive to the situation. The e-visa episode establishes the need for constant engagement with the Centre so that the State's concerns vis-a-vis tourism are promptly communicated and addressed.
Secondly, the State's current chaos does not bode well for the season. Digging of roads and traffic snarls that severely affect mobility are impediments that affect not only locals but tourists too. The capital city is in complete disarray, making vehicular movement extremely difficult. A portion of the city roads in Margao jurisdiction is also being dug for sewerage line work. Roads leading to beaches, too, need to be in better shape.
Early this month, hordes of Russian tourists exited the Pernem coast, where they were camping, and proceeded towards Sindhudurg in search of better pastures. They were critical of the Goa experience and pointed at the stink, dust, noise, congestion and lack of facilities along the beaches.
This has to be an eye-opener. If Goa is eyeing upmarket tourists and especially visitors from the UK, the State will have to up its game and provide better hospitality to visitors. With neighbouring Maharashtra and Karnataka providing options, apart from other States like Kerala, we will have to upscale efforts and infrastructure to keep pace with other destinations. Desi tourists may accommodate the shortcomings, not international tourists. We cannot project ourselves as a tourism capital and fall short even on basic facilities like clean washrooms at beaches, changing rooms and drinking water facilities.
It's time to consciously look at the sector with a holistic approach instead of living with the illusion of being the tourism capital of India.
