The tourist season in the state is well and truly on. The first international chartered flight for the season 2023-24 carrying tourists arrived several days back. But the beach shacks are nowhere to be seen. It learnt that the shack business is heading for a delayed start to the season and most of the shacks may finally return back around mid-November. The last date to apply for the beach shack ends on October 27 and the shacks will finally be allotted to the operators in November. The delay was as a result of the time needed in resolving certain issues with the Directorate of Tourism. Ideally the beach shacks business should have started in the month of September but will now be delayed by almost two and half months. It must be said that beach shack business is an integral part of Goa’s tourism. A lot of expenditure goes into setting up a beach shack. With the delay in starting business this year the operators will have lost much of the business. It needs to be noted that the operators have to pay a hefty license fee after they are allotted the shacks. It would be in the fitness of things for the license fee for beach shacks to be reduced this year as the operators will be getting fewer months to run the business before the tourist season finally comes to an end next year.
