BIZ WITHOUT BUZZ: A deserted shack at Baga beach on Thursday. Agnelo Pereira
MAPUSA
Goa's beach shacks may have sprung to life for the tourism season, but business is yet to take off, with shack owners across the coastal belt reporting dismal tourist footfalls and a season that has begun on a worrying note.
In what appears to be a troubling departure from the usual early-season bustle, shack operators say that even domestic tourists, who have increasingly become their mainstay amid declining foreign arrivals, are staying away.
The situation has left several operators struggling to meet operational costs, with many hoping that the Diwali holidays and the December rush will bring some relief.
President of the Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS) Cruz Cardozo described the current situation as the worst he had witnessed in his 34 years of running a shack at Mobor in Cavelossim.
"There are no tourists at all. Even domestic tourists are not coming. This is the worst time we have seen," Cardozo said, pointing to the Dussehra period as particularly disappointing.
He attributed the declining footfalls partly to the nuisance created by touts and beach hawkers, alleging that complaints of tourists being harassed or cheated on beaches were circulating widely on social media and discouraging prospective visitors from coming to Goa.
"Even Indian tourists are complaining that they have been cheated on the beach. These are the main issues because of which people are not coming to Goa," he said.
President of the Goan Traditional Shack Owners Association Manuel Cardoso echoed the concern, saying business had been exceptionally slow in both North and South Goa.
While shacks have largely become operational, customer footfalls have remained disappointing.
According to Cardoso, nearly 90 per cent of shack operators now depend on domestic tourists, while foreign visitors, particularly those who traditionally patronised quieter stretches such as Candolim, have become increasingly scarce.
He said foreign tourists were largely older regular visitors, with very few young travellers arriving in Goa. The absence of charter flights from traditional international markets has further compounded the problem.
Cardoso also flagged the difficulty of obtaining Indian visas, arguing that cumbersome procedures were driving foreign holidaymakers towards competing destinations such as Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, where visa-on-arrival or simpler entry facilities are available.
"People do not want the headache of visiting consulates, standing in queues and applying for visas. The government must seriously consider visa-on-arrival facilities to encourage foreign tourists," he said.
SOWS secretary John Lobo said the current season was worse than the previous two to three years, with the high-spending tourist segment conspicuously missing.
"The type of tourists we are getting is not generating the kind of business we need. The high spenders are not coming, while those arriving in buses are largely low-spending visitors. They are choosing other destinations," Lobo said.
He said the slowdown was not confined to shacks, with hotels also reportedly offering rooms at steeply discounted rates, simply to keep operations running.
Cardoso further raised concerns over the increasing cost of operating shacks, saying licence fees had risen by around 10 per cent to approximately Rs 3 lakh, making it difficult for traditional operators to recover their investments in the prevailing conditions.
Lobo, meanwhile, called for the government to address basic tourism infrastructure issues, including garbage, beach lighting, electricity and the menace of touts and hawkers, before embarking on promotional campaigns in international markets.
With the Diwali holiday period approaching, shack owners are keeping their fingers crossed for an improvement in business. But after an unusually subdued Dussehra and a slow opening to the season, optimism is tempered by the fear that Goa's traditional winter tourism rush may no longer be guaranteed.
