TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2024
VIBHA VERMA
PANJIM: In the barely two and half months that Goa has opened its borders for visitors amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in a move meant to revitalise the dwindling tourism industry, the State has been stunned by visitors who used this opportunity to indulge in unlawful activities, acts that led to further blot the image of Brand Goa.
From rave parties, to gambling to counterfeit notes, the crimes shocked Goa, but didn’t entirely surprise stakeholders in the tourism industry.
Travel and Tourism Association of Goa’s (TTAG) past president Savio Messias said, “Crimes, cheating, touting, prostitution, drugs all come along with the development of tourism. It is the duty of the government to regulate and control crime as these issues bring a bad name to Goa. These were some issues discussed during the presentation of white paper to the government.”
As Goa moves closer to the next season, tourism stakeholders are unperturbed about the negative publicity owing to these disturbing incidents. Instead, stakeholders are glad the police are ensuring zero tolerance to any form of crime in the State.
“The police department has to be appreciated because of whom these cases have come to light. The crackdown sends a clear message to all that no attitude of ‘anything is chalta’ in Goa is acceptable. It has put deterrence to that,” TTAG president Nilesh Shah told Herald.
On being quizzed about the possibility of crimes owing to unrestricted movement of people, Shah replied in the negative. “Not really. We live a democracy. COVID-19 is here to stay until a vaccine is found,” he said.
But, while the industry takes this in its stride, civil society does not. Fr Maverick Fernandes of Centre for Responsible Tourism said, “The government has learnt absolutely nothing out of this pandemic as far as tourism is concerned. It was a golden opportunity to rethink tourism in Goa where focus could have been local coastal communities instead of wild promotion as Goa being a destination of free for all. Such type of incidents will continue until the government begins to realise the importance of rethinking and focusing tourism keeping people as an asset rather than means for only profit.”
Herald also spoke to All Goa Hotel & Restaurant Association president Gaurish Dhond who claimed that policing needs to be strict. “How can the Goa government or hotel owners control or keep a watch on the tourist and their indoor activities? We need to be cautious while tourists are allowed freely in Goa, non corrupt policing needs to be strict. Government should promote domestic travelers and FIT’s to bring back our economy in tourism at the earliest,” he said.
The industry has been taking a beating. In a bid to revive the flagging image of Goa as a premier tourist destination, TTAG, then headed by Messias, had suggested a number of measures to reinvigorate and streamline Goa’s tourism identity on all platforms, in a comprehensive white paper to Tourism Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar.
On the crime front, it had suggested the need to have programs to sensitize the police
force that every tourist who is on holiday to the State is not a potential criminal, but also sought urgent need to arrest prostitution and drug menace in the State.
“We need to have information counters which are empowered to deal with crime and issues of safety. Given the current scenario, an agency needs to be appointed to control that damage caused by any untoward incident that takes place. SOP documents to be created for criminal nuisances for a hotel owner or a restaurant owner to deal with such situations properly,” were among other suggestions.
