It’s two days to
Christmas and the feeling in the air along most of
Goa’s tourist-centric coastline is funereal.
At Pedro’s in Benaulim, the deco includes a wealth-out-of-waste
Christmas tree that’s made entirely of empty pint beer bottles. But
ever since the tourism season started, there have been barely any
takers for the rest of the stock that’s in this beach-side
restaurant’s fridges.
“It’s a very bad season,” says Sonia Fernandes, the 26-year-old
proprietor of the family-run business. Yet, she’s not bracing for a
complete no-profit scenario. “We’ll know where we stand only once we
finish the period from December 23 to January 3.”
This Christmas-New Year period, often called the peak-of-the-peak
tourist season, is known to have helped many stakeholders in the past
to make up for losses sustained through the rest of the October-March
season.
This time around, it’s a different type of customer that’s holding
that baton of hope.
“We don’t come as tourists, we just come home,” says Melville D’Sa,
47, a chief engineer with the merchant navy.
A captain in the same line of work, Peter Savio Lourenco, 46, adds, “I
don’t always get leave at this time of the year, this time I have.”
While Christmas for both men will be family affairs at their
respective homes, D’Sa also plans to take his two children to the
kiddies’ parties being organized in the run-up to Christmas at a
starred hotel in Cavelossim and a famous club in Margao.
For Kimberly D’Souza, Christmas isn’t complete without a meal at a
shack. “It’ll probably be dinner,” says the 35-year-old,
Bangalore-based IT professional, who has driven down to be with her
family in Margao for Christmas. And the same plan is on the menu,
albeit at a Panaji-based restaurant, for Dubai-based Valentina
D’Costa, who arrived at her Taleigao home this morning.
Lourenco says post Christmas he will be dropping by at shacks and
restaurants for a meal or just drinks with family and friends. “I love
catching live music shows, so I gravitate towards those offering the
same,” says the 46-year-old, Fatorda-based, father-of-one.
His view is echoed by Shreta Arora of Porvorim who’s on a short break
between cruise line contracts and who’s already “explored the
Morjim-Mandrem stretch”, is enjoying live music shows at restaurants
and shacks and is “eating the food (at restaurants) that I miss so
much when I’m sailing”.
Stakeholders point out that while the Goan Diaspora doesn’t really
contribute to the industry as a tourist would—in terms of staying at
hotels or patronizing shacks the way foreign tourists do—they are
still big spenders.
A family of five, with two children working abroad, ends up bringing
along to a shack, restaurant or pub not just their immediate family
but also aunts, uncles and cousins, and even friends at times,
explains Rymer Gomes of The Southern Deck, Benaulim. “At least 70% of
our clientele at this time of the year are Goans,” he adds.
Francis Lisboa, part of the Britto’s Old Boys Association—an alumni
group of the famous Mapusa-based school—points out that at least 20%
of the 1,200-plus attendees at the group’s annual Christmas-day
dance—in its 13th year and scheduled at a famous dance venue in
Parra—are overseas Goans.
“Overseas Goans do like to eat out and meet up with friends and
relatives when they’re down on holiday and this does cater to the
economy of this season,” says Savio Messias, president of the Travel
and Tourism Association of Goa (TTAG).
He points out that for many Goans settled in the UK, however, the
closure of travel firm Thomas Cook has meant fewer and more expensive
flight options to Goa at this time of the year.
“I know someone who’s got a 12-hour stopover in Delhi because that is
the less expensive flight he got from London to Goa. Many others have
simply skipped a visit home for Christmas this year as it’s an extra
20,000 to 40,000 rupees just for a flight ticket. A higher cost to fly
in is lesser money to spend when on holiday,” Messias explains.
Fernandes is also worried that the Goan Diaspora footfalls at Pedro’s
this Christmas may not be up to mark.”
