MARGAO
President of the Shack Owners Society, Cruz Cardozo on Wednesday said that beach touts and not the taxi operators are the real culprits for tarnishing the image of Goa amongst tourists visiting the state.
Cardozo thanked Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte for his decision to issue early licenses for the beach shacks, which has helped the operators to obtain the remaining licenses from other government departments without any delay.
He, however, said that unseasonal rains has hit the tourism industry during Diwali, but has pinned hopes on the arrival of UK and Russian tourists to give the much needed relief to the tourism stakeholders.
Cardozo told the media that the beach touts have spoil the image of Goa as perfect tourist destination. “These touts swarm on the beach belt selling anything and everything, right from hotel time share and clubs. These touts are not from Goa, but hail from different parts of the country. These touts have given negative publicity for Goa’s tourist industry. If there’s shortfall of tourists, we can say with confidence that these touts are responsible to a large extent”, he said.
He added: “We cannot blame the tourist taxi operators all the time for the negative publicity. They eke a living by operating outside the hotels. On the other hand, the touts have a field day on the beach belt, spoiling Goa’s image as a tourist destination”, he said.
On the tourists footfall so far this seasons, Cardozo said that the beach belt played host to tourists during Dusshera. “Tourists were there to usher in Diwali festival, but they could not come out of the hotels because of the unseasonal rains. This is a natural disaster and we cannot blame the government”, he said.
He said though many hotels were reported good occupancy, the tourists, who had come for events, including weddings and conferences, could not come on the beach. “We are hopeful of a turn around with tourist from the UK and Russian have started arriving in the state”, he added.
