The Germans have abandoned Goa as a holiday destination and the Scandinavian countries might follow. If you like Russians, this isn’t bad news because in the end numbers are numbers and big is beautiful. So as long as the number of charter flights increase and the number of foreign tourist arrivals are up the government and perhaps, even the industry might chose to look at this with one eye closed. But there is another side to the story. The real question is, are we going down the drain slowly? Germans and tourists from other Scandinavian nations have given Goa the pass because it no longer conforms to their standards. True, no one expects Goa to be like Germany, but a minimum level of cleanliness and order is essential. Garbage collection and disposal is still and issue. The traffic chaos along the beach belt is a real put-off and the taxi fares are exorbitant when compared with other destinations in the country. Worse still, some beach stretches have completely lost their character and seem like they were grafted from another over-populated destination. Goa has a lots going for it, but this obsession with numbers over value will eventually take the state in the direction of cheap tourism. Do we really want to go there?
