Dr Joe D’Souza
Although agriculture will forever remain at the heart of Goan economy and development, it is the tourism sector that has today taken over as the mainstay and backbone of Goa’s sustainable development. Today in Goa there are nearly 80 lakh tourists visiting us, “ the resident population is merely 15 lakhs.
In this article, I will focus primarily on high-end and high-spending visitors “ which constitute less than 10% of the tourists visiting Goa “ coming to Goa on a holiday, scientific or technical conferences, spending over Rs 8,000 to 20,000 a day in the 5-starred hotels in Goa.
These are visitors of various hues and colour who contribute immensely to the hotel industry and the transport sector with the sizeable amount they spend.
Once the Guest leaves his hotel particularly; Goans are in full knowledge, how the touts posing as guides, lamani sales persons, drug mafia in collusion with those running the taxi business loot and scoot. There are incidences of thefts, trickery, drug, money exchange which go unreported and unregistered as these are illegal activities and the visitors does not want to involve in reporting these criminal activities and paraphernalia during their short stay; be it for relaxation, pleasure or even business and study visit to Goa.
Needless to mention, the increase in crime in Goa has tourists staying away from the state.The government both at the National and in the states are focusing on making our country digitally smart and technologically savvy. However without meters and app-based transport services, many high end tourists find Goa as a “cheating and exploiting” destination.
How many Goans are actually aware that Goa today is considered as an unsafe destination for luxury and high spending tourists? Let alone hundreds of visitors going back from their visit and coming down with malaria, dengue, enteric infections, allergies of all types and Legionellosis.
Today Goa in general and Panjim in particular is sitting on a “garbage bomb”. Our River Mandovi is polluted with high levels of organic compounds, sewage discharges, heavy metals, etc. Formalin-laced fish and pigmented vegetables are just the tip of the ice berg. If we minutely subject our local catch to quality assurance tests on stringent basis we must not be surprised to detect heavy metals detergents, pesticides, oils.
If we as individuals find it suffocating and uneasy to walk about in the capital city, what about the miserable fate of the visiting tourists.
While concerned authorities handling tourism are busy on jaunts at public expense , Goa has been gasping for pollution-free sustainable tourism.
Due to the lackadaisical attitude of the State government towards the basic need to protect our environment to promote Goa as a paradise on earth, the 5 stars tourism is under stress of deterioration and decay.
The “Value for Money” proposition, hitherto the Unique Selling Proposition ( USP ) of Goa, is getting decimated owing to several reasons, one of the important issues being the deterioration of hygiene and consequent onset of travel related disease. People of Goa are totally oblivious to the fact that Legionnaires Disease is one of the key factors responsible for the destruction of tourism in Goa.
As per reports, Legionnaires Disease, a deadly form of pneumonia, has been on the rise in starred hotels in Goa. In the past few years, the number of tourists affected have been steadily growing. In 2018-19 there were 7 cases reported of tourists in North Goa.
Legionnaires Disease, caused by the bacterium Legionella Pnuemophila, is a microorganism which is found to proliferate through contaminated water systems in large buildings with complex piping networks and leisure water amenities such as ornamental fountains, cooling towers, swimming pools and jacuzzis. It is a bacterial infection of the lungs that develops into deadly pneumonia. Most people become infected by breathing in small droplets of contaminated water suspended in air. Symptoms include ‘flu-like’ illness with muscle ache, tiredness, headache, dry cough, shortness of breath and fever. Sometimes diarrhea occurs and confusion may develop in the mind of the patient.
The National Travel Health Network & Centre (NaTHNaC) has updated their Travel Health Pro website with a news item relating to Legionnaires’ disease cases in Goa, and can also be accessed on the public domain on the internet by clicking the following link -https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/news/391/trav….
Some of these affected tourists have claimed high damages to the tune of Rs 50 lakhs individually, alleging violation of “Standard of Care” and “Deficiency of Service” by the Hotels
There has been several mass cancellations of charters as a result and consequent black listing of specific hotels by globally reputed charter companies. This bad publicity does not augur well for the tourism sector in Goa which already reeling from the pressure of competition from the likes of Kerala and Sri Lanka. This is a wake up call for the concerned authorities in the tourism sector to get their act together or lose the proverbial goose that lays golden eggs.
The powers that be need to engage with stakeholders and empanel qualified professionals, scientists, environmental experts in the trade to develop and enact regulations with strict compliance mandates. There are hardly any hotels having quality assurance laboratory for their services.
If the present state of affairs continues , the day is not far when there may be a permanent travel advisory warning travelers especially from Europe and USA of the health risks associated with stay in Goa. Wake up Goa before it is too late.
