MONDAY, MAY 20, 2024
Team Herald
CALANGUTE: The Sinquerim-Candolim Watersports Association has made the entire booking and payment process transparent by going completely online.
“There were a lot of complaints earlier that tourists were being overcharged or cheated. Now they can go online and pay directly. There’s satisfaction amongst customers that they’re not getting cheated,” Vincent Fernandes of the Sinquerim-Candolim Watersports Association said.
With allegations of touts cheating tourists and bringing disrepute to watersports in the state, the tourism department had sought to introduce an online system.
“The tourism department wanted the Goa Electronic Limited (GEL) to implement the online booking and ticketing system which was opposed by all watersports operators in the state. But we decided to implement the system on our own and it has been working very successfully,” Fernandes said.
He said they pay around Rs 20 lakh per month as GST with the new system. The GST is 18% of the ticket cost of Rs 350. They get around 800-1000 customers every day during good periods, he said.
“The government has complimented us, saying ‘You have done what we expected you to do’. And there’s satisfaction in customers that they’re not getting cheated,” he said.
The Sinquerim Jetty Association operates dolphin spotting trips, and has 196 boats, with each getting a trip in the queue system. There are around 50 dolphin spotting boat trips per day currently, a stakeholder said.
“It’s summer holidays so tourists are coming with their children. Otherwise there’s hardly any crowd now,” he said.
“The season started very well in October-November, but then it inexplicably slumped in December-January when you normally expect the maximum crowd. Then around mid-February it picked up. They’re saying the Calangute-Candolim beach-belt is getting crowded and tourists are looking for less crowded beaches,” Fernandes said.
