Tourists swooping down on beaches during the countdown to the New Year and literally setting up liquor drinking camps, singing and dancing in the sand were the striking highlights of celebrations as Goa woke up on January 1 to clean the mess left behind on beaches. The year 2023 was ushered in with outlandish partying till the early hours of the next day. Hordes of desi tourists sleeping on the shore with a hangover of the night, alcohol bottles strewn all along, and piles of garbage scattered on the beaches gave a bitter aftertaste to the New Year's revelry. This was the horrible past that Goans were so used to year after year, a past that everyone hoped to put behind while a new year was being ushered in this time.
However, yet again the system flattered to deceive, and the promise of tourism taking off to a new level came down with a thud. Promises of invoking discipline, and a host of initiatives, including the tourism department circular on coming hard against nuisance on beaches, failed miserably, and all the gusto that was shown on paper paled out with a sea of tourists descending and running amok.
Ironically, this year proved to be even worse than the earlier ones. Tourists continued to drive their vehicles on beaches and even camped on the beaches and cooked their meals. Drinking on the beaches was the most common sight in both north and south Goa, and no one cracked the whip.
The spirit of festivity prevailed over the laws of the land, with the sound law relaxed till the wee hours. It appears that Goa is going full circle when it comes to tourism. The court has blamed authorities over sound pollution, the tourism department blames the police, and the DGP states that the police teams intervene "if there is a PCR call". The blame game keeps revolving. It is ridiculous that police will act only based on a call to the control room, and we fail to understand the logic here -- a violation is acted upon only if reported, not otherwise. The failure of the system is because of such a lop-sided application of laws where the law itself is being reduced to a farce, the court's intervention notwithstanding.
The little hope of a turnaround seems to be fading as rowdy and raucous tourists are allowed to go berserk and cheap frenzy is being lapped up for the sake of tourism. An ordinary citizen or any disciplined tourist will never comprehend the idea of Goa as the tourism capital of India going by what was on display at the New Year party.
It's time to stop painting a picture of grandeur and high-class concept tourism if we are not firm about the kind of tourism we want in Goa. The blame game has to stop too. There has to be a conscious choice in branding tourism, and there must be clarity and intent in driving the change Goa needs. Otherwise, the tourism scenario will always remain the way it is or could even worsen.
