The DefExpo, heli-tourism, hot air ballooning, the focus of tourism appears to be shifting to South Goa and the residents of the district are thirsting for more, even seeking that one of the electronic dance music festivals is taken from the North and given to them.
It all started with the DefExpo. South Goa residents, especially Xaxtikars were excited to see planes flying at Betul and the sorties by the little winged pride of the India Army while a few in the locality were irked by the Army almost invading their vicinity and tapping into their phone lines, electricity and
water supply.
But taxi drivers, hoteliers, owners of small guest houses, restaurant owners and even allied businesses around Betul and other parts of South Goa were happy from their turnovers from the
DefExpo 2016.
“The DefExpo definitely brings cheer to Salcete and most of South Goa from Canacona to Mormugao. South Goa has the DefExpo and the GoaFest which is currently in progress but the rest of it, for example Sunburn, Supersonic, IFFI and all the other big events take place in the North of Goa. Tourism needs to be spread across Goa and all should benefit from it. Also Goa doesn’t need this South versus North divide. Tourism needs to be pan Goa. Also, it is not that North Goa didn’t benefit from the DefExpo. Marriott and all other four and five star hotels in North Goa were also fully occupied during the DefExpo,” explains Savio Messias, the president elect for 2016-2018 of the Travel and Tourism Association of Goa.
Similarly, Nilesh Cabral, Chairman of the Goa Tourism Development Corporation of Goa pointed out that the DefExpo was definitely a huge boost to tourism in South Goa. GTDC has already given South Goa helicopter tourism rides that had started from Panjim to Aguada but were stopped when Candolim residents opposed the landings at Aguada and are now running in South Goa. Hot air ballooning is also held in South Goa villages.
“In my opinion, since the locals don’t want any industry there, Betul can attract motor shows, auto expo, the bike week, even fashion related events and medical expos and conferences. But all this needs infrastructure and facility. And once that is in place, locals will come by and set up shop and allied businesses will find support from the numbers. Betul can match Delhi’s Pragati Maidan. But the convention centers on that land should be owned and set up by the Goa government through the IDC or GTDC or Tourism department and the land should not be handed over to the central government. That will be South Goa’s biggest boost to tourism,” stated Nilesh Cabral.
Similar to the thoughts of Cabral is that of local lad, Aratkar Velip who works as a labourer and loader and lives in Balli, neighboring the Betul land site. “I visited the DefExpo as it was open to the public on the last day but what does the expo mean to us? Out real joy is in getting some employment in setting up those huge stalls and air-conditioned tents or maybe employing our youth as loaders or empowering us with some opportunities. Since we got none of that work, the DefExpo is a letdown to us,” explains Velip.
Like Velip, a lot of taxi operators not attached to any tour operator or not attached to any hotel feel betrayed as they don’t get any business from mega events like this and have to wait in queues at the airport or railway station or at the DefExpo hoping someone will have to hop on the taxi.
“The hot air balloon ride costs Rs 9,000 and the heli tours are also very expensive. The rafting is seasonal to the monsoons and then there’s this whole threat of Mopa and tourism being wiped out from Goa, so there’s no certainty to South Goa’s tourism. South Goa has backpackers and hippies as international tourist and local cheap Indians who come in groups and eat and stay in buses and jeeps and come to Goa only because booze is cheap. These kinds of tourist benefit nobody,” explains Peter Pereira, a Majorda based taxi driver.
While Louisiana Remedios who runs a small eatery at Betalbatim explains to us that the Goa government needs to find a way to divert one music festival, either Sunburn or Supersonic to South Goa and that’s the only way to give Salcete and other South Goa talukas a fair share of the tourism clientele. Because people prefer South Goa but they don’t want to be in snarling traffic jams and hence prefer North Goa during the Christmas
season.
Canacona-based Vipak Naik, who runs a shack explained how serious DefExpo clients who were running Defence equipment stalls were also frequenting nearby Palolem and Kola beach and relaxing and doing business. But he explained that this kind of tourism activity can’t be a one off activity because then, the locals are not prepared to be better equipped.
“South Goa tourism is seasonal and locals do only that much for that season. They don’t expect crowds from IFFI, Sunburn, Supersonic or the crowds that come to Goa to visit nightclubs in Calangute and Candolim or the new crowds that frequent casinos in Panjim. So suddenly a one off DefExpo is not a reason to venture into tourism related business or sustain a hotel, shack, restaurant, pharmacy, and shop for glares or swimwear. We need continuous tourists like North Goa’s coastal villages to up our tourism game. The State needs to brainstorm and help us and not deny us by threatening to build Mopa and decisions like this,” asserted Vipul Dessai, who shuttles people in his yellow and black taxi from Agonda to Dabolim and services many foreign tourists.
For now South Goa appears to be the flavour where tourism projects are concerned. It’s got the resorts and the shack, and the beaches. All it needs is an EDM to steal a march over North Goa.
