The Goa Tourism Department, on Friday, released figures for the first half of the calendar year, which indicated that the State received over five million tourists between January and June this year. The data that was officially released by the Department was gathered via the new system that the Department has put in place, which asks hoteliers to separately record the number of guests they are hosting for each booking, along with details like nationality, purpose of stay, etc.
The figures were conveniently released before the start of the monsoon session of the Goa Legislative Assembly, possibly to stymie any questions from the Opposition benches, who are all too eager to accuse the government of failing to promote tourism amid a social media frenzy that Goa has been abandoned in favour of other destinations like Thailand, Sri Lanka, etc.
However, numbers alone do not mean success, especially if we do not look at tourism holistically. Assuming the numbers are correct, it will mean that Goa is on course to outstrip the figures achieved last year, which, according to the Department, was in excess of Rs 1 crore. Simply inviting people over and claiming that they are flocking to Goa in droves without sorting out the inherent issues linked to tourists will eventually spell doom.
It is a well-studied phenomenon that a visiting tourist, on average, generates three times as much waste as a local resident. Then there’s the issue of driving indiscipline -- both reported and unreported -- that, more often than not, goes unpunished, with the perpetrators getting away scot free. The same can be said of the behaviour of tourists -- mostly Indian male tourists -- who show no intention of respecting the privacy or personal space of women foreign tourists, harassing them for selfies, catcalling, lewd remarks, staring, etc. The Tourism Department has shown neither the initiative nor the intention to put in place a mechanism to police the tourists to prevent them from going out of hand and taking a violent turn.
In celebrating the number of tourists Goa is receiving, the Goa government does not seem to realise the cost to the State. The strength of the police force is sufficient only to police the local population, and certainly not the five million tourists who visited the State during the last six months, nearly five times the local population. The thin police presence breeds a sense of lawlessness that often results in people -- tourists and locals alike -- taking the law into their own hands, resulting in brawls, fights and other violent attacks.
There are other shortcomings as well, issues that were raised by the TTAG in their meeting with the Chief Minister, viz unplanned development, illegal structures and encroachments give Goa the impression of being a slum. None of this is beneficial from the perspective of becoming a premium tourist destination.
Claiming success by counting the numbers, in fact, does Goa a disservice, especially since a holiday in Goa has never been about crowds, traffic jams, harassment by touts, shady night clubs and abuse on the streets. It has been about sandy beaches, green fields and shack life. It’s time we celebrate our essence and not chase numbers because some influencers on social media claim Goa’s numbers are falling.
