Tourism minister Rohan Khaunte has rightly decided to do away with this year's foreign tourism junket by the GTDC which had become a regular feature over the years, encouraged and patronised by former Tourism ministers and enjoyed by ministers and MLAs and family members, where crores of rupees were spent uselessly to promote Goa tourism and culture through roadshows and dances in foreign countries, on the dubious presumption that they boosted tourist footfalls by 30%. It is time we realised that Goa can ill afford such adventurism, when it is undergoing a severe financial crunch with mounting debts. Goa has already earned for itself several plaudits as the preferred holiday and tourist destination and paradise. The need now is to protect and save this image which is being tarnished by domestic tourists in particular, who willfully violate the laws of the land with their unruly behaviour. A different picture of Goa has also emerged from the reports of a few foreign tourists who had a harrowing experience during their stay in Goa and vowed not to step again on Goan soil. Among the several reasons cited, were exorbitant taxi fares and cheating by taxi drivers, poor hotel accommodation and high room charges, filthy beaches, stray dog and cattle menace, the nuisance of touts and beggars around the beaches, etc, It is therefore time to set our house in order before even thinking of splurging on foreign junkets as a right to promote tourism.
