Team Herald
VASCO: MV ‘Celebrity Constellation’, a luxury cruise liner with 2,004 high-end guests and a crew of 940 arrived in Goa to explore the natural beauty and hospitality of the Coastal state.
As many as 1,200 passengers had pre-booked their local excursions in advance and were on an independent tour, hence they had no problems whatsoever after landing on shore. But many others who intended to visit places of their choice using taxis finally landed in trouble as the GTDC-operated prepaid taxi counter had no taxi to offer for these high-end tourists. Some guests utilised the KTC coaches that were made available at the cruise terminal to visit the heritage monuments at old Goa and the temples in and around Ponda.
Other remaining guests had to face difficulties as no proper transport facility was available as taxis, which usually used to ferry cruise passengers, had extended their support to the strike called by tourist taxi unions.
Many tourists informed Herald that they had to cancel their plans to visit places of their choice and the other plan was either to visit a nearby beach or Vasco town.
With regards to the transport facility available for these high-end tourists, there were rickshaws, motorcycle pilots and the last option for those in groups was to walk their way to Vasco town.
Therefore as per their convenience, these high-end tourists had a firsthand experience of travelling in a rickshaw while some took the services of motorcycle pilots and many of them preferred to walk.
In the bargain, motorcycle pilots and auto rickshaw drivers made a quick buck. As per inquiry from cruise passengers, a pilot was charging nothing less than 10 dollars to drop at Vasco, while a rickshaw driver was demanding 20 to 30 dollars upto Vasco.
“We don’t know the problem but it’s quite disappointing. I thought that it will be easy to catch a taxi from here, so I avoided sightseeing offer. I wanted to visit Old Goa, Panjim and one of the beaches but now I don’t know how to go there or what to do,” Brad, a Canadian tourist said.
“Ten minutes before we could get down from ship we were told about non-availability of cabs. Now, my plan is ruined and hence I am going to walk around till the town and from there to some nearby beach,” Jerry, a tourist from the US said.
Another Canadian Lavoie Andrew, who was with his wife on his maiden visit to India, was seen capturing picture of cruise vessel atop the harbour hill as they were unable to move anywhere. He said, “We expect to go to an old Portuguese fort, which is 40 kms away and few a selected places, which we saw on the internet but there is no taxi available and a gentleman, who approached us demanded 100 dollars each, which is expensive for nothing. I don’t mind paying but he was demanding too much. Next time, we will come but will visit northern parts of India such as Agra, Delhi etc. as the Goa experience was disappointing”.
Meanwhile, MPT in a press note however said, “Despite the strike call given by the tourist taxi operators for the second successive day, all the local excursions in and around the state were handled smoothly by luxury AC coaches organised by the local tour operator as well as other luxury mini coaches arranged by the GTDC. The guests arriving by the cruise liner did not face any sort of travel inconvenience within the state and it was business as usual. All the guests visiting Goa had a pleasant tour experience and returned back with happy memories”.
