If there is one story that inevitably crops up around this time, in the final run of the tourist season, it is the ‘charter flight’ story. It has been over three decades since the first charters landed in Goa and since then, charter tourism has been one of the pillars of Goa’s then ad-hoc tourism policy. This year so far, only 463 charter flights have landed in Goa, bringing 98,796 tourist, most of them from Russia. Stack this up against the amazing tourist season of 2013-14, and you’ll realise there has been a drop of around 60 percent or more. But there are various reasons for this, not just the Russin economy
downturn which has obviously devalued the Rouble. That part of the world is at war and less people are moving out, for
one. There is also an economic crisis throughout the world;
Goa’s high prices, what some may called an overvalue, do not
make for an attractive picture.
But this is also what happens when you put all your eggs in
one basket. There was a time when an ample amount of charters
came in from England, Germany,
France and other countries
too, besides Russia. When Goan
businessmen decided to patronise
the Russians and ignore the loyal
English and other central European
tourists, things started to get ugly.
It didn’t help that Russians tend to
displace everyone else when they
converge upon a tourist destination.
Today, you’ll find a smattering
of central European tourists and a decently large group of English
senior citizens.
But the younger generation of tourists from these countries
have vanished from Goa shores. They do not have the kind of
downtime that their elders share. Where the older generation
came down for months on end, the younger generation do not
travel anywhere for more than a month. That’s the difference
between retirement funds and yearly travel budgets.
But there is also the matter of increased competition. India’s
neighbouring countries have all upped their game. Today,
you’ll find packages for Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand
and even Bali, Indonesia that compete with those for Goa. So
much so that even domestic tourists are dropping Goa as a luxury
holiday destination and venturing overseas. In India, Kerala,
Gujarat, Rajasthan, the North East and other places have
started to flourish, all creating tourism policies and creating
attractive advertisments, packages and concepts to lure domestic
and foreign tourists. Goa has sadly stuck to the age old
beach tourism. Bikinis on Goan beaches are not going to do
what they did in the 90s. Things have changed. Goa has stayed
in a rut. In fact, with the authorities failure to conduct a beach
carrying capacity report, as ordered by the National Green Tribunal
in December 2014, even the beaches are in danger of being
closed off to private shacks and other players if ruled are
not complied with soon.
However, this is probably a lesson for tourism stakeholders
and the government. Yes, there is a need to provide incentives
to all the players and invite more charters here but there is also
a need to go back to the drawing board and reinvent the tourism
wheel for Goa. The state came out with a logo not too long
ago that had a 360 degree scope, it could be viewed from any
angle and still read Goa. Perhaps there is a need to apply that
360 degree concept to the state’s tourism outlook now.
