-----
AN EVENING BEFORE NEW YEAR
* Panaji roads breathe easy; surprisingly, not much traffic seen
* Seems as if there aren’t many tourists thronging the city
* But, it's a different scenario at leading hotels of Panaji
* Tourists are willing to pay more than double the usual tariff rates
* Later, tourists are seen heading towards casinos
* Cashing in on the surge, casinos increase entry fees by three-fold
* Unable to coop with mad rush, casinos contemplate to block entry by 8 pm
------
PANAJI: The fact that the lifeline of Panaji’s tourism extends from hotels to casinos doesn’t become more apparent than on New Year’s Eve. There wasn’t much traffic on roads in the evening hours of December 31. In fact, Panaji saw more traffic congestion the previous day ie Dec 30. That could easily give an impression as if there weren’t many tourists in the city to be part of the midnight New Year fiesta.
But, nothing could be further from the truth as leading hotels of Panaji like Hotel Mandovi, Hotel Park Plaza and Palacio de Goa hardly had a vacant room with the New Year 2016 a few hours away. At some hotels, tourists were desperately trying to find rooms and were willing to pay more than double the usual tariff rates.
Later in the day, tourists were seen heading towards casinos. Seeing a huge tourist turnout, casinos had more than trebled their entry fees. Even at 7 pm, casino-staff wasn’t sure if they could accommodate all people waiting to enter. In some cases, they said they might have to block entry of more tourists by 8 pm itself, as demand was that huge.
While the usual Panaji traffic moved as if it was any other day, tourists from Maharashtra, North-India and Southern India lined up anxiously waiting to enter casinos. Taxis were parked right on the road hoping for tourists to come out of casinos as soon as possible so that they could be taken to the beach belt of Baga-Calangute.
But, there was a catch there too. Few taxi-drivers were seen contemplating whether to take tourists to Baga-Calangute or not. A taxi driver lamented, “If we take tourists to Baga-Calangute, we will get stuck in traffic there, but tourists aren’t willing to compensate us for that.”
Parts of the city not frequented by tourists like 18th June Road and MG Road didn’t see much activity as most locals preferred to go back to their homes early. But, Indian tourists were seen shopping in large numbers at showrooms like Puma, which were offering huge discounts.
These tourists could buy their favourite brands in the city they were coming from as well. But, they found it too difficult to remain away from the allure of massive discounts on brands they fancy. One of them even said, “We can always spend bucks we save on discounts here on booze.” Well, who can complain for that!
