THURSDAY, MAY 09, 2024
Team Herald
CALANGUTE: The ongoing Lok Sabha elections has reduced tourist traffic to beach shacks and water sports in Calangute-Candolim, with many operators complaining that it's been one of the worst season ever.
“It's one of the worst season ever,” Seby D'Souza, vice-president of the Shack Owners Welfare Society (SOWS), said. “The season for beach shacks started two months late,” he said.
With barely any foreign charter tourists coming from Russia and Ukraine, two of the biggest source markets for Goa, many locals in the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt who had been allotted shacks in November last year had decided not to pay the licence fee and set up their shacks, while many others had decided not to open their shacks even after paying the licence fee.
A few had not opened for business even after erecting their shacks. Many beach shacks which initially started, closed down for the season in March, shack owners said. Foreign tourists are the main patrons of beach shacks.
“Most of the beach shacks have been already dismantled. Because of the election code of conduct, the crowd is less,” D'Souza said. The Calangute-Candolim beach-belt has 200-odd shacks, the highest in Goa.
While the state tourism department keeps sending delegations to foreign tourism trade fairs to attract tourists from Spain, New Zealand, etc, they have failed to get the foreign tourists, stakeholders said.
"The approach needs to change," Shack Owners Welfare Society general secretary John Lobo said. “They're only sending government officials to international travel marts. They should also send shack operators, water sports operators, because tourism in Goa started because of us coastal people, who set up shacks and started water sports. What do bureaucrats sitting in offices know?” he questioned.
Lobo said instead of only five-star hotels being consulted, stakeholders from different tourism businesses should be brought together to discuss steps to improve the tourism industry.
Besides shacks, water sports operators also had a poor season, with stakeholders claiming that that the 2023-24 tourism season has been down by around 80%. The biggest reason for this has been the uncontrollable crowds of domestic tourists visiting the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt, stakeholders said.
“They're saying the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt is getting crowded and tourists are looking for less crowded beaches,” Vincent Fernandes of the Sinquerim-Candolim Watersports Association said.
